Left Behind
by kryptoniansky
Summary: Deeks and Kensi are given protective custody of an eight-year-old boy when his parents go missing. The abduction is a matter of national security, but the investigation only leads to more mystery and danger. Densi. Set in later seasons, though Nate is included. Monty is also a main character in this story. May contain general spoilers or references. Rating may also change.
1. More Questions Than Answers

The rating for this story may change later on, so be warned. Though many other characters will also be featured, it is a Densi (Deeks/Kensi) story overall so beware if you're not a fan of that pairing. I am Australian, so the spelling will be in accordance to that. I will do my best to keep everyone in character throughout the entire story. Any feedback is highly appreciated and all suggestions/theories are very welcome. I hope you enjoy this story, and look forward to more because I will be updating rather regularly. There is also a banner for the story in my profile, if you're interested.

* * *

**~ Prologue ~**

'Look, man, that's not gonna cut it.' The driver of a semi-truck said to the phone he had propped up on the dashboard in front of him, using the speaker function so he could drive without having to hold the phone to his ear.

_'Well, there's nothing I can do about that.'_ Came the slightly irritated reply. _'I was told it was a two hour trip, there and back. Where are you?'_

'I've just come into Los Angeles.' The driver, John – a bulky man with a scruffy beard - answered. 'I've been on the road for three hours now. This is ridiculous. Get Rick on the phone!' He growled, and gripped the steering wheel tighter. The man tried to focus on the road, despite his frustration, and was only successful when a silver 4WD sped around the side of his truck to bypass the red car in front of him. It was gone in seconds, breaking at least a dozen traffic laws along the way.

Shaking his head, John sighed and glanced at his phone for a brief moment, wondering if his buddy was in the process of putting Rick on the phone to sort out the delivery route he was meant to be taking. Looking to the road, John swore loudly and slammed his foot onto the break. A car had swerved from the opposite lane and crossed in front of him. The car missed him, but John still had to fight to keep the truck stable and safely bring it to a halt. It swayed a little and stopped outside the traffic lines on the road.

He, and those around him, had been lucky.

Gasping with shock towards what had happened, and relief he'd kept the truck under control without hitting anyone, John took a moment to come into terms with the cause of his near-mishap. Gulping, though filled with curiosity, the driver angrily got down from the truck and walked around in front of it to see what had become of the silver car.

It was gone.

'Is everyone driving like a maniac today?' He grumbled.

He pulled his baseball cap back onto his head and moved to return to his truck. Ignoring the sounds around him, from complaining drivers and ongoing traffic, John decided to change direction as he headed for the bushes nearby. He'd been on the road for three hours so a bathroom break was needed, especially when he still had no idea how much further he had to go to make his delivery.

John made it about eight feet from the road when he spotted the rear end of a car, which he'd almost overlooked from where it was mostly inside some nearby bushes. It wasn't a vehicle he recognised, but the doors were wide open and skid marks led from the wheels back to the road it had driven off. It stopped him in his tracks, though his first impression was the dark blue car had been abandoned. John swallowed as his gaze drifted over what he could see of the car, then turned around and quickly ran back to his truck.

He climbed up and reached for his phone, snatching it with a sense of urgency.

_'John?'_ His buddy's voice broke the short silence. _'John, you there?'_

'I gotta call you back.' John said hurriedly and ended the call.

He frantically dialled for the police, looking over at the car with worry. He hadn't got a very good look at it , but he'd run for his phone the moment he realised the police needed to be informed. John had seen something that made him pray he was over-reacting. There had been blood on the windshield, which was likely related to the driver's door being marred with bullet holes, and on the grass next to the passenger seat was a teddy bear. John didn't know what happened, but he hoped whoever had been in that car had gotten away or would soon be found safe once the police arrived on the scene.

He had no idea that what he'd just stumbled upon was something that stretched further than his imagination could expand, and was about to change so many lives.

* * *

~ **Chapter One: More Questions Than Answers ~**

Every week they were someone else.

A new name, with a different past, and an alternative life extensively unlike their real one.

Sometimes they were lawyers cheating their way into a lot of stolen Military money, and other days they were part of a gang planning on smuggling weapons across the border. Very rarely did they play good guys, because otherwise they may as well just go in as themselves. The NCIS OSP team had dangerous jobs, and yet to most of them that was part of the appeal.

Though often similar in some ways, each case was always different from the last. Each suspect and every witness – nothing stayed the same. They liked the challenge, the thrill, and the motivation of delivering justice upon the bad guys, all while getting paid to kick butt and drive fast cars. They'd been doing it for years, and yet with everything that frequently changed in their lives and jobs, in a single day it was all about to taken in a drastic new direction.

As the sun shone over the city of Los Angeles on a Monday morning, something was happening on the roads just outside of town that would throw the NCIS OSP team into a situation they hadn't been trained or prepared for. It was going to change everything, and the cause was not a gang leader thirsting for revenge, or a greedy businessman willing to do anything for money.

No, it was a young child whose very existence was being threatened.

When they each left their own residences and headed in to work, not one member of the OSP team could have predicted it was their last morning where everything was familiar and routine. They arrived at work one by one, starting with Sam and ending with Kensi.

The office was quiet at first, as they all had a lot of paperwork to catch up on from a recent case. Sam and Callen flipped through pages with opposite interest - with Callen looking bored and Sam focusing on the details. Deeks was tapping his pencil against his desk and frowned at his pile of papers, trying to work out why it was significantly higher than the others, until he looked across the gap between desks to see what Kensi was doing. Amused, Deeks sat higher in his seat and his movement caught Callen's attention, despite being across from Deeks rather than beside him. Callen followed his gaze to Kensi, and also smirked.

'Late night?' Callen asked casually, causing Sam to look up as well.

The question was answered with a grunt from Kensi, whose face was obscured from view by her hair, as she rested her forehead on the desk.

'Long night.' Kensi lifted her head and looked tiredly across at Deeks and Sam, then eyed Callan with a frown. 'And it's not what you think.'

'Hey, I didn't say anything.' Callen chuckled and held held his hands up in surrender while glancing at the others. 'So, who was the guy?' He added in teasing.

Kensi shook her head and sighed, rising from the seat to walk over to a nearby counter where the coffee was. She poured herself a cup of the steaming liquid, and almost spilled it when a piercing whistle filled the air from above. It was Eric's signal, which they each knew all too well, and was an alert that they had a case.

'Come on.' Kensi grumbled. 'Really?'

She contemplated taking the coffee upstairs, but knew Hetty wouldn't allow it. With a drawn-out exhale of defeat and annoyance, Kensi left her coffee cup behind and turned to follow the others in the direction of the stairs. They were waiting for her inside, and Kensi wasn't the only one to notice the grim expressions on both Eric and Nell's faces.

'What have we got, Eric?' Callen asked.

'A mystery.' Eric answered.

He looked to the wide screen in front of them where a picture of a dark blue car was seen amongst the edge of some bushes. All the doors were wide open and it showed signs of being shot at. The smear of blood was seen on the windshield, along with the teddy bear sitting on the ground a short distance from the front passenger side of the car.

'What happened?' Callen prompted.

'Was there a kid in the car?' Kensi worried from the moment she'd seen the bear.

'No.' Eric answered her first, then began to explain the situation. 'The vehicle is registered to Navy Lieutenant Michael Ellis.'

He brought up the service photo of a man in uniform, with light brown hair and dark green eyes.

'A semi-truck almost hit another car just after sunrise this morning. The driver, John Malcolm, swerved to a stop and no one was injured. He got out, and found this car.'

The image of the empty blue car was shown again.

'He alerted the police, and they contacted us as soon as they saw Petty Officer Jasmine Ellis's Military ID on the floor of the passenger side.'

'So they're missing?' Sam guessed. 'Kidnapped?'

'It looks like it.' Nell nodded, taking over. 'They were supposedly on their way to work when this happened. Lieutenant Ellis is no longer on active duty, however he does manage a position in the pentagon. It's his job to handle a lot of highly classified documents relating to everything from terrorist groups, to weapon shipments, and Navy technology secrets.'

'Sounds like a valuable target.' Callen commented. 'And the bear? They have kids?'

'A son. He's eight-years-old.' Nell said. 'We weren't able to find a recent picture of the boy, but he's safe for now. Someone else dropped him off at school this morning at Petty Officer Ellis' request, saying they had to head to work early.'

'Where does she work?' Deeks wondered.

'Camp Peddleton.' Eric said. 'Security, mostly. It's still important, but not as much of a threat to national security as if Lieutenant Ellis gives away any classified Intel. And he has access to a lot of it.'

'It's probably why they kidnapped him.' Sam added. 'To convinced him to talk, or force him to give them information.'

'But they left their son alone?' Kensi joined in. 'I mean, they kidnapped his wife as well, but usually if the target has a family they go after them first.'

'The kid got lucky.' Callen said. 'This could have been a lot worse. At least he's out of harm's way.'

'Let's keep it that way, Mr Callen.' Hetty said as she walked into the room. 'Daniel Ellis is at school right now. He is being watched by one of our own agents, who is undercover as a janitor. When school is finished for the day, Mr Deeks and Ms Blye will pick him up and take the boy to a safe location.'

'You think they might come back for the kid?' Deeks wondered.

'And you just happened to have someone undercover as a janitor in that particular school?' Callen raised an eyebrow.

'Unlikely.' Hetty said to Deeks, ignoring Callen's question. 'But let's not take that chance.'

'Are there any traffic cams in the area?' Sam inquired, still looking at the screen with determination to find out more.

'No.' Eric said importantly. 'We tried, but they're not operational.'

'Not operational?' Kensi repeated. 'Why not?'

'They're down.' Eric explained. 'Since yesterday. A crew is out there now, fixing them, but they aren't expected to be finished until late this afternoon.'

'Convenient.' Sam frowned, thinking it wasn't a co-incidence.

'Someone had to have known that.' Callen agreed. 'This was not random, or a crime of opportunity. They planned it. They knew the Ellis' were heading to work early and...they had to be tailing them – how else would they know which car was theirs? Are there any other traffic cameras from their house to where the car was abandoned?'

'Let's see...' Eric tapped at his hand-held keyboard and brought up three small images on the screen, which Nell walked towards to enlarge the first one.

'This was taken a block from their house, just before dawn.' Nell said, watching the distant footage of Michael and Jasmine Ellis leaving the house for work. Their blonde-haired son watched them from the doorway, with a dark-skinned woman waving goodbye to the pair.

They got into their car and drove out of the driveway without any signs of distress or being out of routine. The vehicle turned down the street heading to the road that would lead them into the mass of early-morning traffic. Everyone observed the next footage of the blue car making a stop for coffee, which was quick and lacking indications of anything being out of place. The final video was along the same road they would be stopped on, but the car drove off-camera before they could reach the scene.

'No tails.' Sam shook his head.

'Unless they changed cars.' Kensi said. 'And we're sure this is a kidnapping?'

'They left their son behind.' Sam frowned at her.

'He seems familiar.' Callen frowned, looking closer at the service picture of the Lieutenant.

'He should.' Eric nodded. 'He's been involved in three NCIS cases in the last year. Never a suspect, but each time he had something to do with the investigation. One was a drug deal involving a buddy he served with – Lieutenant Ellis provided some background on the suspect, then had nothing more to do with the case.' He summarised, bringing up pictures and documents as he spoke, each which Nell enlarged for the others to see.

'The second was over three months later, when there was a potential breech at a base his wife was guarding, but it was a false alarm. Later it was revealed to be a diversion so a shipment of weapons could be stolen nearby. Ellis helped NCIS with information regarding those weapons as it involved something he had files on at the Pentagon, and a past task force he kept tabs on.' Eric said.

'And the third case was five months ago, where one of the men he'd served with called him in for moral support when the guy's brother was accused of human trafficking. Ellis played a bigger role in helping us solve the case.'

'So this guy handles sensitive information for the Pentagon and is familiar with NCIS investigations.' Callen recapped.

'He knows how it works.' Kensi realised. 'He had to have known that if he or his wife disappeared then NCIS would be called in. The wife's ID was just left there for the police to find? The cameras are down so no one can confirm it's a kidnapping. This could have been staged.'

'And the gunshots on the car?' Deeks questioned. 'The blood?'

'All we've got is a bunch of theories.' Callen said. 'We need facts. Deeks, Kensi – talk to the woman who dropped their son off at school. See if she noticed anything that might help. Then have a look around; maybe something there will tell us if this is real or staged.' He instructed. 'Sam and I will talk to the truck driver, and check out the crime scene. Me might get lucky.'

'Right.' Kensi nodded.

She headed for the doorway with Deeks beside her, but the pair were halted from going any further when Hetty stepped across their path to block the exit.

'School finishes at 2:30pm.' She reminded them. 'You will be briefed on the additional details when you get back from the Ellis household. Don't be late.'

'Got it.' Deeks nodded, though he was a bit confused about what extra details they would be needing just to drop a kid off somewhere safe.

Callen watched the pair leave, then glanced at Hetty as he knew something else was going on. He trusted he'd be told if it was important, so he turned to Sam and then led the way out of the room. With the agents heading to their assigned destinations, Hetty looked at Eric and Nell, who each appeared to be waiting for her signal of approval.

She nodded once, and the pair headed to their computers to continue their work.

'Let me know if James calls in.' Hetty added as she turned to leave.

'Sure.' Nell nodded. She glanced over at the main screen to watch the security footage from the school where they had an agent undercover, to keep an eye on Daniel Ellis – just in case.

~ LB ~

'Hm.' Callen made a noise, as he looked out the car window, while Sam drove them to the area of the reported crime scene.

'What?' Sam grumbled.

'What?' Callen glanced at him. 'Nothing.' He shrugged. Callen sighed and looked back through the window with a contemplative expression.

Sam glanced at his partner with annoyance, as Callen had been making random sounds for most of the drive, yet Sam didn't want to be the first one to break. He stared back at the road, until barely a minute later when Callen grunted and he couldn't take it any more.

'Are you gonna tell me or would you walk the rest of the way?' Sam asked.

'Tell you what?' Callen redirected just to irritate his partner, then sighed again. 'It just doesn't make sense. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the kid's okay, but...'

'I agree.' Sam nodded. 'In most cases like this they go after the kids first, not the parents. Kidnapping their son first would force them to co-operate.'

'And it doesn't look like they made any move on the kid at all.' Callen continued. 'Daniel's at school where he's supposed to be. Even if it's not a kidnapping, why would they leave their son behind?'

'They knew NCIS would pick him up.' Sam theorised. 'And if he disappeared too then it looks less like a kidnapping.'

'Maybe.' Callen frowned. 'Or maybe something else is going on.'

'Let's find out.' Sam parked the car on the side of the road and got out, looking over towards the semi-truck and then the bushes where the LAPD had taped off the supposed crime scene.

'Eric said no one reported the car being driven off the road.' Callen shared, joining Sam on the walk to the driver's side of the truck.

'You really don't think this was a kidnapping, do you?'Sam glanced at his partner.

'No.' Callen admitted. 'I don't. We don't know what it is, not for sure, but I've seen a of kidnapping cases and this just doesn't add up to one.'

'Something's off.' Sam nodded, looking around the area for any additional tyre tracks or skid marks, while Callen headed towards the nearest police car where the driver of the truck stood near the side with an officer.

'Agent Callen, NCIS.' He flashed his badge to them both, and waited for the officer to walk away before he turned to the driver. 'John Malcolm?'

'That's me.' He grunted. 'What's NCIS?'

'Naval Criminal Investigative Service.' Callen sighed. 'You're the one who found the car?' He peered towards the distance where the dark blue car was barely seen amongst the bushes it had stopped amongst.

'That's right.' John confirmed.

'Tell me about it.' Callen encouraged.

'A car, looked like a 4WD, cut across into my lane and damn near hit my truck.' John frowned at the memory. 'I slammed down the breaks, and stopped here.' He indicated to his truck not far away, while lookingwarily to the car he'd discovered. 'I needed to take a leak, so I headed to the bushes...' He trailed off, swallowing anxiously – what he'd found clearly had a worrying effect on him.

'Was this the car?' Callen asked.

'No.' John shook his head. 'The one that cut me off was bigger, and not so dark. Silver, I think. I dunno what model it was – it happened so fast.'

'Did you notice anything strange before that?' Callen wondered, thinking they still didn't have a lot to go on. He and the team were used to relying on traffic cameras for these sorts of road-related situations, whereas this time they didn't have that asset.

'Not really.' John narrowed his eyes in thought, looking downwards as he tried to remember anything that might be counted as "strange". 'It was just a busy road. Everyone was driving like a maniac today.'

'Everyone?' Callen repeated.

'Well, one crazy car before the 4WD.' John shrugged. 'Other than those two, and the one I found, nothing else seemed off.'

'Right.' Callen exhaled with disappointment. 'Thanks.'

'Can I go now?' John wondered. 'I've got deliveries to make.'

'What sort of deliveries?'

'Computers.' John answered. 'I'm already behind schedule.'

'Sure.' Callen allowed. 'Give me your number so we can call you if we have any more questions, then you're free to go.'

And while John offered his number to Callen, Sam was busy wandering around the car and looking for clues other than what they'd already found. There were no seconds tracks, though it was on grass so the abandoned car had barely left any either. The grass was reasonably short and didn't give many details about how many sets of footprints there had been either.

'What have we got?' Callen asked.

'A little more than nothing.' Sam frowned. 'And a lot less than something.'

'Doesn't sound too promising.' Callen replied.

He focused on the car itself, as there was only so much they could see from the photos they'd seen on the main screen at Ops. He crouched to the ground where the teddy bear was, since the police hadn't moved anything yet, and wondered what could have happened.

'There were two reckless drivers.' Callen told Sam. 'One cut in front of the truck and overtook a red car. The second was coming from the opposite way and sped across the front of the truck, forcing it to stop. He was lucky it didn't end up a lot worse.' He looked towards the road, then back at the partially-concealed car. 'I doubt the driver of the truck would have found the car so easily if he hadn't nearly wet his pants.' He said and straightened.

'It is inconspicuous.' Sam pointed out, and went through what they saw and assumed. 'So this car drives off the road early this morning, either by force or not, and ends up in the bushes?'

'It didn't crash.' Callen revealed, walking around the branches to get a better look at the front of the car.

'Why here?' Sam added, gazing around again as though something had changed. 'The faulty cameras?'

'They needed the blind spot.' Callen agreed, rejoining Sam by the open front passenger side door. 'There's blood on the windshield, but nowhere else. It's probably not fatal. The driver's side door is covered in bullet holes, yet no one reported a shooting either.'

'That would have been noticed.' Sam stated. 'Maybe it didn't happen here?'

'The Military ID of the wife was on the floor.' Callen continued, looking into the car. 'And the stuffed bear on the ground.'

'If she was forced out of the vehicle, she could have dropped it.' Sam was irritated by having to guess rather than finding solid answers. 'This is getting us nowhere, G. We don't know any more than we did an hour ago.'

'We do know one thing.' Callen turned towards the road still filled with traffic despite one lane being closed off by the police. 'Whatever this is about, it's something big. No one goes to all this trouble, without kidnapping the kid for insurance, unless they knew exactly what they wanted and how to get it.'

'If this was a kidnapping.' Sam reminded him.

'Right. And if it's staged?' Callan regarded his partner. 'Where does that leave Lieutenant Ellis and his wife?'

'Not here.' Sam answered with a shrug. His gaze trailed into the distance with uncertainty about what was going on and why the car had been abandoned without its passengers.

~ LB ~

'We're here, Eric.' Kensi spoke on her phone as she got out of her car and focused on the plain, white house across the road. 'Tell us about her.'

_'Ayira Yeboah immigrated from Africa when she was five years old. She has no criminal record or anything suspicious in her past.'_ Eric answered, discussing the woman who had dropped Daniel Ellis at school that morning. She'd waved goodbye to Michael and Jasmine Ellis on the camera's they'd viewed earlier, and could possibly be one of the last people to have seen them before their car was left abandoned.

_'She currently works as a nanny.'_ Nell added. _'Ayira Yeboah is also a member of dozens of charities relating to helping orphaned children and the homeless. She even volunteers long hours at a youth centre every Sunday. She hasn't missed a single day for over five years.'_

'Sounds like someone who cares about kids.' Kensi commented, watching the house for any signs of activity. 'Alright, thanks.' She hung up and signalled to Deeks.

The pair approached the house, keeping an eye out just in case, and quickly reached the front door. They shared a glance, then Deeks raised his hand to knock.

'Ayira Yeboah?' Kensi spoke loudly through the dark wood of the door. 'NCIS! We need to ask you a few questions.'

Kensi and Deeks listened carefully to the movement inside the house. Nothing struck them as alarming or a cause for concern, as the door opened and the surprised woman stood there to greet them.

'NCIS?' She repeated before they could introduce themselves. 'What is this about?'

'Michael and Jasmine Ellis.' Deeks answered, relaxing his posture. 'You dropped their son off at school this morning?'

'Yes.' Ayira's expression creased with worry. 'Is Daniel okay?'

'He's fine for now.' Kensi nodded seriously. 'But his parents are missing.'

'I don't believe it.' Ayira gasped and covered her mouth with her hand in shock. 'How did this happen? When?'

'Not long after they left for work.' Deeks replied. 'Are you Daniel's nanny?'

'No.' Ayira paused to gather herself before she continued. 'Michael called me last night to ask for a favor. Mrs Ellis had an early shift at work, and Michael said there was paperwork he needed to do. They asked if I could drop Daniel off at school this morning.'

'You're on first-name basis with the Lieutenant, but not his wife?' Kensi raised an eyebrow. 'And if you're not Daniel's nanny, how do you know them?'

'I have watched Daniel in the past.' Ayira answered. 'I met Michael when he donated money to a local orphanage only weeks after they moved to Los Angeles four years ago. We are friends, but his wife does not trust me. Michael never told me why.' She said with disappointment. 'The family has secrets, but I did not pry.'

'Have they asked you to drop Daniel off at school before?' Kensi wondered.

'Never.' Ayira shook her head, indicating it was an odd request. 'This is only the third time I have even seen the boy. They are very protective of Daniel, and won't even let him play in the streets or take the bus to or from school.'

'Did they say anything else before they left this morning?' Kensi pressed for more details. 'Anything at all?'

'No. Nothing.' Ayira replied. 'I wish I could be of more help, but everything was fine. What happened to them? Who would kidnap them?'

'That's what we're trying to find out.' Deeks sighed.

'And what will happen to Daniel now?' Ayira asked sadly.

'NCIS will be proving protective custody until we find his parents.' Kensi told her and handed the woman a card with her number on it. 'If you remember anything else that might help, please give me a call.'

'Looks like it was a kidnapping.' Deeks commented as they walked back to Kensi's car. 'Everything seemed fine, and she got no instructions to pick the kid up after school.'

'That means this case is officially a matter of national security.' Kensi said anxiously. 'And we still have no idea who could have taken them, or where they are now.'

~ LB ~

Many hours later, the team still hadn't found any solid leads on the urgent case.

It was a lovely afternoon in Los Angeles, and they were all inside the Ops room going over facts and researching anyone who might have seen Jasmine or Michael Ellis in the last week or so. Sam and Callen had talked to anyone who worked with the Lieutenant, while Kensi and Deeks checked out the home for any clues and then stopped by the bases Jasmine worked on. They had more information than that morning, yet nothing which could be used to track down the missing lieutenant and his wife.

'Mr Deeks. Ms Blye.' Hetty's voice reached them as she emerged into the room and fixed them both with a firm stare. 'Do you know what time it is?'

'Oh, shoot.' Kensi winced as she glanced at her watch. 'We have to pick up Daniel.' She nudged Deeks.

'Right.' He nodded, pretending he hadn't forgotten. 'And take him where, exactly?'

'That's what you're both about to be briefed on.' Hetty said and led the way down the stairs and across to her office.

'Okay.' Kensi wondered if they would be doing more than transporting the boy from school to a safe house if the situation involved a briefing session.

Hetty sat down in her chair and sipped from a stylish white teacup before she looked over at the pair standing in front of her, and nodded.

'Until we know more about what's going on, or in the event of locating Lieutenant and Petty Officer Ellis, Daniel must be carefully watched by NCIS. His continued safety is one of our many priorities. We cannot allow anyone to make a move on taking the boy too.'

'Of course.' Kensi understood.

'For the moment, the school is secure and is under surveillance all hours of the day. Daniel Ellis only needs to be watched when he isn't at school, so I am assigning the pair of you to look after the boy.'

'Wait, us?' Deeks chuckled nervously. 'You want us to babysit the kid after school, and at night?'

'Not babysit, Mr Deeks. Protect.' Hetty insisted firmly. 'I have arranged a cover house for the three of you to stay in. It's not far from here, and is only a fifteen minute drive to the school. You will need a cover story, but not an alias. We want to keep things simple - we have no idea how long or short this case may be.'

'So we're going undercover as ourselves?' Kensi was a bit confused, and not entirely pleased by the arrangement.

'Almost.' Hetty smiled. 'To avoid suspicion or confusion amongst your new neighbours, it would be a strategic move on both your parts to imply you're both dating. From this moment forward, neither of you are an official investigator in this case, and are merely stepping up to your roles as Daniel's godparents while the boy's parents are away.'

'But...I...' Deeks fidgeted and wasn't sure what to think of their mission. 'Okay.'

'For how long?' Kensi wanted to know.

'As long as necessary.'

* * *

**Author's Notes:** The focus of this chapter was to set up the case, so there will be more Kensi and Deeks stuff in the next chapter, as well as officially bringing Daniel into the story (along with Nate and Monty). Thank you for reading, and I would really appreciate any feedback you have to offer. This is my first ever NCIS: LA story and I am very fond of it so anything you could share with me would be a great help, plus I'd love to hear your thoughts on the first chapter of the story so far.


	2. Meeting Daniel

Thanks to everyone who read, and reviewed, this story so far - you're all an inspiration and why I have updated the story earlier than I thought I could. Mild swearing in this chapter, though hardly s, and tiny spoilers for "Neighbourhood Watch". In my profile there is a link to my Youtube account, which is where you'll find the tribute video for this story. There is also a banner in my profile for an exact image of what the safe cover house they'll be staying at looks like.

* * *

**~ Meeting Daniel ~**

It was a tense moment.

The long corridor, with pale floors and blue walls, was quiet and almost vacant. At the middle section of the hallway were many green lockers lined along the wall. Kensi and Deeks stood with their backs to the lockers, leaning slightly against the aged green metal, as they stared ahead to the closed classroom door opposite them.

'How much longer?' Deeks asked, breaking the stillness of the moment with his impatient tone. He glanced to his left at Kensi, his face of dread and concern.

'Any minute now.' Kensi answered quietly, looking down at the watch on her wrist.

They resumed their staring, each gaze of blue and brown fixated on the door with the square, blurred-out window. Inside the classroom was the eight-year-old boy they'd been assigned to protect. The child who sat at his desk doing his school-work like any other day, not yet realising the day was far from ordinary. They dreaded meeting him because the boy had no idea he wouldn't be going home to his parents today, or any moment too soon.

Instead, everything familiar about his life would be overturned.

Kensi flinched slightly when the ball overhead rang loudly in her ears, her face shifting from anticipation to sadness. Deeks glanced upwards at the dull ceiling and released a long exhale, wishing they didn't have to be the ones to break the bad news to the kid. The door opened wide, and children rushed from the room - their faces alight with eagerness and innocence.

The teacher, Miss Reynolds, had been informed earlier that the Ellis boy had to remain behind when school concluded for the day. She expected company once the rest of the children had filed from the room, though she had not yet been told any of the specifics about what was going on and who would be speaking to her.

Kensi and Deeks shared a glance of pending regret, then each leaned away from the lockers. Kids of various ages hurried by them in the hallway, as the two law enforcers crossed the space between the lockers and the open classroom door. They entered the room, and caught their first sight of the boy at eight years old. Eric and Nell had tried to find a recent photograph of Daniel Ellis, but all they'd been able to discover was a picture of the child at the age of five. The camera footage of the last time he'd seen his parents had been capture from an angle too far away from the house to get a clear enough image of the boy.

And so, as they looked at his eight-year-old face for the first time, Kensi had to withhold a small gasp of momentary surprise.

'He looks like you.' Kensi whispered to Deeks with amusement.

The boy had the exact same hair tones and colouring as Deeks, as well as length - even though it was much straighter and organised in appearance. The pair also shared almost identical striking blue eyes, which expressed themselves in similar ways. Their skin tones were the same and, though they highly doubted it was possible, the child could have easily passed off as Deeks' son.

Deeks had paused for a moment when Kensi commented on the visual similarities he and the boy had in common, though he was confident she was just teasing him. Personally, Deeks didn't think they looked that alike, but he knew now wasn't the time to comment.

'What's this about?' Miss Reynolds, the boy's teacher, asked with an intrigued expression.

'I'm Special Agent Kensi Blye, NCIS.' Kensi told the woman and showed her ID. 'And this is Detective Marty Deeks, LAPD.'

She opened her mouth to say more, but looked at the nervously confused boy seated a desk away from where she stood. Anything she had to say felt wrong to be spoken so near a young child, even if parts of it he would have to know sooner or later. Kensi was determined to be professional, but she could not deny the fact it was a difficult situation and not at all a pleasant one.

'Is something wrong?' Reynolds asked, her curiosity forming into concern. It wasn't an unusual assumption to reach, given her company and lacking the presence of the child's parents.

Kensi looked at Deeks, each non-verbally debating over who was going to have the task neither of them wanted to do. Sighing, Deeks ducked his head and turned to the teacher to indicate they should talk outside the room. He gave Kensi a sympathetic expression, which she returned with insisting diligence.

Once Deeks and Reynolds had left the classroom, shutting the door behind themselves in the process, Kensi turned back to the boy. His posture was slightly hunched, and he hastily dropped his gaze from her when he saw she had focused her entire attention to him.

'Daniel?' Kensi crouched in front of the child. 'Did your mum or dad say anything to you this morning - anything that might seem a little strange?'

'No.' Daniel answered quietly. Despite the firmness in his voice, he quickly looked away again and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. 'Where are they?'

Kensi mutely inhaled a breath to prepare herself.

She wanted to take the time to answer, in fear she'd say it all wrong and upset him more than he was likely to be. For a fleeting moment, Kensi wondered how the man who had told her about her father's death had felt when he stood on her doorstep that early morning, anticipating the delivery of news that was both upsetting and lacking in answers. Kensi vowed to never deliver that sort of news to the boy in front of her, because his parents were still out there somewhere and she was going to make sure they were returned to him - unlike her father was to her.

'We don't know.' She spoke with truth, because there really was no other answer to give and Kensi would have resented being lied to about something so important.

She wasn't going to do it to someone else.

'NCIS are looking for them. I promise we're doing everything we can to find them.'

Daniel's eyes immediately welled with tears and he continued to avoid her gaze, gripping the material of his dark pants with his fists.

Kensi watched the emotions whirl through the small form of the boy and felt helpless, just as she had many years ago and sometimes still did. She wanted to do something, anything, to ease what the boy was feeling. She reached to place a hand on his shoulder, but he violently shrugged it off and frowned at her efforts.

'Okay.' Kensi sighed, nodding her head with understanding. 'Until we find your mum and dad, you need to come with us. We'll stop by your house first so you can pack some clothes and toys to take with you.'

'I don't want to.' Daniel stated. There was anger and blame etched into his darkened blue eyes, as he lifted his chin to glare at her.

'I know, but you can't stay in that big house all by yourself.' Kensi sympathised with the obvious hurt Daniel was feeling.

She knew it was hard enough for anyone to hear their parents were missing, and Daniel was only eight-years-old. She wished she had more to offer him, such as comfort or answers, but there was nothing. Kensi also hoped the boy wasn't going to be too difficult because while his emotions were understandable for the situation, she and Deeks still had a job to do.

'We ready to go?' Deeks re-emerged into the room, leaning casually against the frame of the door even if his facial features were set with seriousness and discomfort.

'No!' Daniel stated, and crossed his arms over his chest.

'Okay.' Deeks answered loosely and walked over to Kensi, who straightened. 'I don't mind waiting, but I was kinda hoping to get some ice cream before we check out the house we'll be staying in.' He said with a dramatic sigh. 'If we stay here too long, we won't have time. That would be a shame - I hear it's double-chocolate-Monday.'

Daniel watched him and squirmed, then grumbled and got to his feet. He walked nearby to retrieve his schoolbag, unaware of the smug grin Deeks flashed to Kensi.

She merely rolled her eyes at him.

~ LB ~

'We've got another stop to make on our little trip.' Deeks added, as they walked outside the school building a few minutes later. 'I've got to pick up Monty.'

'Deeks!' Kensi frowned at him. 'Is he house-trained?'

'That's besides the point. He lives with me, so if we're staying some-place else for a while then he needs to come to. Monty goes where I go.' Deeks told her.

'Like Mary and her lamb.' Kensi muttered.

Deeks, pretending not to have heard her, looked over at Daniel.

He thought the boy was coping well, considering what Kensi had probably told him, and yet Deeks did not lose sight of the fact the eight-year-old was now their responsibility. And in more ways than simply being under their protection. Kensi had grabbed the boy's hand to make sure he stayed close, just as an added precaution, Deeks noticed. But Daniel struggled against her grip, every step of the way, in clear determination to walk on his own and keep his distance.

'Do you like dogs, Daniel?' Deeks asked, while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious on the walk across the road to where their assigned car was parked.

There wasn't much to notice - a lot of the activity was on behalf of the kids running around and parents searching the crowd for them. There were the sounds of the buses nearby, as well as cars and people either arriving or departing. Much like the Ellis residence had been at dawn, everything seemed ordinary and unchanging.

'I dunno.' The boy answered. He was momentarily distracted from his attempts to inch away from Kensi when he curiously looked up at Deeks. 'Why?'

'I have one. Is it alright if he stayed with us too?' Deeks asked, though Monty would be coming either way. 'Like you, Monty would be left all alone otherwise.'

Daniel thought about the question, but merely shrugged, and was relieved when Kensi finally let him go. He stumbled back from her, almost colliding with Deeks, as he'd still been pulling away when she'd suddenly released him. Looking towards the black SUV they would be using, Daniel halted when Deeks reached over to open the door for him.

The boy's face paled and he looked scared to get into the back seat of the vehicle.

'We're strangers.' Kensi pointed out to Deeks. 'We can't really blame him for being so reluctant.' She rejoined Daniel's side and was about to talk to him when the blonde-haired boy revolved around to run away.

'Whoa!' Deeks jumped in front of him and seized Daniel's shoulders to prevent him from escaping. 'It's okay, buddy. We're Police Officers, okay? Look.' He used one hand to reach into the pocket of his jacket and lifted out his ID, showing the panicked boy his LAPD badge. He gave Kensi a look, and she nodded while getting out her NCIS badge to also show it to Daniel.

The anxious child lowered his blue gaze to the object offered to him, and accepted Deeks' badge. He rubbed his fingers over its surface, then looked at Kensi's badge with a more defined expression. Daniel growled and tossed her badge onto the ground, before once again attempting to flee.

'It's okay!' Kensi called out to assure some of the worried-looking parents nearby. 'We're Federal Agents.'

She knew the situation probably looked extremely suspicious - with Deeks having to hold Daniel around the middle in attempt to get the boy into the car as normally and harmlessly as he could. The last thing they needed was for people to call the police on what surely looked like an attempted child abduction.

Kensi retrieved her badge from the ground and held it up to show the onlookers, while Deeks was handed back his own badge by a very disgruntled Daniel. Not every member of their inevitable audience were entirely convinced, but they soon focused on their own children instead of frowning disapprovingly at the situation across the street.

Kensi turned in time to see Deeks shut the car door with a huff of effort. The child made no further endeavours to evade them, and merely sat in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest in annoyance. Neither Kensi nor Deeks were looking forward to the coming hours, or days, if their first meeting with Daniel had begun with such a rough start.

~ LB ~

'I'll tell them.' Eric nodded and hung up the receiver, swerving in his chair to observe the others nearby.

The rest of the team were gathered around the Ops room, each trying to make sense of the information on the main screen, which gave them neither answers nor a sense of direction to their case.

'Deeks and Kensi have picked Daniel up from school.' Eric informed them. 'They're on their way to the safe cover house now.'

'Good.' Hetty nodded. 'Make sure they check in at the house so we can begin the surveillance. I assume everything is all prepared for their arrival?'

'Yep.' Eric nodded, but double-checked anyway. 'We have all eight cameras set up outside. They cover all areas of the street and small yard out front, around the sides, and various angles of the backyard - along with one inside the garage. They're all night-vision enabled and have high-functioning adjustable lens.'

He exhaled to take a break, tapping at his hand-held keyboard to check the other features of their state-of-the-art surveillance. It had all been put into place several hours earlier by an expert team who had been very discreet, at the firm request of Hetty.

'There are numerous security alarms at every entrance, as well as superior motion sensors across the yard all around the house. All which completely outstrips the budget of every other houses in the neighbourhood.' Eric finished with a smirk.

'But nothing inside the house?' Callen questioned, looking away from a file on Petty Officer Ellis' CEO from Camp Peddleton Base.

'Miss Jones?' Hetty encouraged.

'With the cameras outside being monitored every moment they're home, and continuously recorded even if no one is home – there was no need to set up any equipment in the house itself.' Nell elaborated. 'With the alarms and sensors, as well as back-up power generators in case there is an outage...well, setting up cameras inside would just seem a bit excessive.' She said with amusement.

'Just a bit.' Sam added sarcastically.

'Even so, Ms Blye or Mr Deeks are expected to check in every night.' Hetty continued. 'If we do not hear from them by ten o'clock, we will know the security has been compromised.'

'As if that's possible.' Eric muttered confidently.

'We may be good, Mr Beal.' Hetty frowned at him. 'But no one is infallible.'

'Right.' Eric ducked his head with embarrassment and turned his chair around to return to his data searches.

They were striving to locate the other two cars involved in the morning incident, as well as try to figure out how the Ellis' car could have been shot up on the side without anyone reporting it. And as far as they could tell, the only time the blue car had bullet holes on it was when it had ended up in the bushes. Additionally, the rest of the team were still making frequent trips around Los Angeles to speak with anyone who might have something useful to tell them, which could help in finding the missing parents of Daniel Ellis.

So far, they were having very little luck.

'You don't really think they're going to try to take the boy, do you?' Callen asked Hetty.

'No, Mr Callen, I do not.' Hetty confirmed his suspicions. 'But needless to say, we must be prepared for anything that comes our way or his. There is no need to ignore an opportunity to take a necessary precautionary action to protect their son and our country's national security. In the meantime, we must pull every resource we have to find his parents and return them home safely.'

'We're trying.' Callen insisted with building frustration. 'At this point, we'll need a miracle.'

'We already have one.' Hetty said to him with a small smile, then continued when he looked at her with confusion. 'Mr and Mrs Ellis are high value targets, in which their kidnappers will likely go to any lengths to get what they want from them. And yet, in spite of those facts, whoever is responsible left their eight-year-old son alone. That's about as miraculous as things come, Mr Callen.'

'Yeah. I guess it is.' Callen sighed. 'And what if it's not a kidnapping?'

'Until solid evidence or a reliable witness says otherwise, we will investigate this only as a kidnapping.' Hetty said sternly. 'But with an open mind. It is often the case that what we're searching so hard to find may actually be right in front of us all along.'

'If that's true, I'll be pissed.' Callen stated dryly, to which Sam snorted at with amusement and agreement.

'Nevertheless, Mr Callen, what we find deep down may be as useful as what's plainly sighted on the surface.' Hetty nodded. 'Just something to think about.' She said and turned to leave the Ops room, heading downstairs with the intention of having a nice cup of tea at her desk.

'Right. Because that's exactly what we need right now – more riddles.' Callen grumbled quietly.

'I heard that, Mr Callen!'

'How does she do that?' Callen muttered, wondering why he didn't automatically assume if he said something then Hetty would hear it. She always did, it seemed.

'The riddle of Hetty.' Sam shook his head. 'That's one we'll never solve.'

~ LB ~

'In the car, Monty!' Deeks tried to command his dog, who sat on the grass outside the parked SUV. He didn't budge, regardless of Deeks' continued efforts.

'It looks like you and Monty have something in common.' Kensi joked to Daniel, turning in her seat to offer the boy a smile.

The eight-year-old looked at her with surprise, then peered at the dog and smiled. Kensi could not help thinking how adorable Daniel was when she saw the boy's smile, and it too remind her a bit of Deeks. She would never admit it, but when Deeks grinned it lit up his entire face and was often rather contagious.

It was hard to be angry or upset when Deeks beamed in a way Kensi thought only he could.

'I'm not going to say it again, Monty.' Deeks complained and did his best to sound as though he was the one in charge of the situation, not the unmoving dog. 'Get in the car.' He repeated.

Monty whined and lay down on his stomach until his chin was pressed to the grass. His eyes were fixated on the open door of the car, though he still made no attempt to move from his position.

'Hey, Daniel.' Deeks changed tactics, glancing over at the boy seated on the opposite side of the back seat. 'Do you think you could convince Monty that the car's not so bad?'

Daniel was wary as he glanced diagonally across the inside of the car to look at Kensi, then he peered at Deeks, before his blue gaze dropped to the sight of the dog. Monty stared back at him with his browned eyes and a dopey expression. The boy was unsure and shy at first, but something about Monty's gaze gave Daniel courage because he leaned forward across the seat as far as his seatbelt would allow him to.

'It's okay, Monty.' Daniel encouraged, patting the space of the seat beside him. 'Come here, boy.'

Monty barked, then got up without hesitation and jumped up onto the seat beside Daniel. He sat down and panted while Deeks reached inside the car to attach the dog harness and strap Monty in. Shutting the door, and walking around to the front passenger seat, Deeks could hardly contain his smug grin of accomplishment.

Kensi glanced at him when he got in beside her and rolled her eyes, realising Monty's reluctance to get into the SUV might have been staged. While turning the keys to start the engine, Kensi looked through the rear-view mirror to see Daniel smiling again while petting Monty with quick fondness. She shook her head with amazement, which Deeks caught sight of and only grinned wider.

The adults said nothing, just listened to the soft murmuring of Daniel as he stroked Monty's head and told him what a good boy he was. One could almost assume Monty was smiling too, thinking the same compliments about his new young human friend.

* * *

It was later in the afternoon when the black SUV drove up the short, cemented driveway to park in front of the bright white garage door. The entire house looked new, with its light colours and clean surfaces. The small green lawn was healthy and cut short, with a few golden cane palm trees outside surrounded by pale, polished rocks. It was very visually-appealing, and modern, though not too grand or over-done.

Since befriending Monty, Daniel hadn't spoken much – though neither Deeks nor Kensi had expected him to. The boy was clearly still rather nervous and confused, which was understandable given the situation of finding out his parents were missing and because of it he had to stay with two strangers until they were found. Kensi and Deeks were just glad the boy stopped trying to get away, and instead did his best to adapt regardless of how he was feeling about it all.

The group of four got out of the car, and each looked towards the house with interest.

The garage was on the right, where the black SUV remained parked outside. Back but otherwise right beside the garage was a stone alcove. Underneath was the front door as white as the house, with two vertical window panes. From first impression, the house looked to be rather decent and its new temporary residences decided it was going to be a nice enough place to stay in.

Daniel was the first to look away from the house, his attention shifting to the chocolate ice cream he was almost finished eating. The liquid had melted down the cone and onto his hand, but the boy wasn't too worried, as he stood next to the car with Monty seated at his side.

Deeks turned curiously to Kensi when she received a call from Callen, and knew there was nothing left to do other than head inside the house.

Deeks checked the kid wasn't about to escape again, before he got the house keys from his pocket and clicked his fingers at Kensi. She gave him a frown, then tossed the car keys over to him, which he caught effectively. Deeks began to get the luggage out of the trunk, which included Daniel's suitcase, Deeks' bag, and several of Kensi's. He grunted as he grabbed them all at once and lugged them towards the door - it was not an easy feat.

'Don't drop it!' Kensi warned, interrupting Callen in the process, when she saw Deeks carrying her bags inside the house.

'What have you got in here, grenades?' Deeks complained.

Despite his struggle, he'd somehow managed to unlock the door and carry the bags inside. It was just his luck that the only bag he did drop onto his foot was his own. He straightened with a drawn-out exhale and checked Daniel had followed him inside. The boy trailed behind him, with Monty running ahead to sniff around, and Deeks felt things were improving already.

Pausing, he looked around the house's interior to appreciate the open space of the kitchen and living room. He was a little surprised by how it resembled the cover house he and Kensi had been undercover in almost a year ago, when they'd played a married couple in order to find a Russian sleeper agent. Everything was set up in a similar way, though still not the same. It was fully furnished, and quite stylishly so. All wood surfaces looked polished and shiny under the overhead lights adorned with colourful shades – or in the case of the chandelier, sparkling crystal.

And even with the fresh, stunning appearance of the house it still managed to look somewhat homey and practical, despite how vacant it appeared at the moment without any signs of being lived in. Deeks had a feeling that part of its appearance and set-up was going to change rather quickly, as he watched Monty jump onto the window seat to peer through the glass from what he could see through the partially-open blinds.

Deeks looked hopefully at Daniel; while the boy clearly thought the house looked nice, he didn't utter a word and merely focused on finishing the last of his ice cream cone.

'Any news?' Deeks asked Kensi a moment later, when she walked into the house the join them.

She shook her head at him, not to say she had nothing to report in regards to the situation, but rather it was not the time or place to say it. Kensi gave the house a quick glance, her eyebrows raising with surprise and interest, before she looked over at Daniel. Noticing his hands, she began to search the kitchen cupboards for some paper towels – Hetty had told them the entire house would be fully-stocked with food, linen, and necessary supplies by the time they arrived.

'Here.' Kensi held the torn paper towels to Daniel.

She expected him to take them and wipe his own hands, as he had been so insistent to do everything himself so far. However, that was not the case this time. He turned to Kensi when she spoke, and silently raised his sticky hands towards her.

'Okay.' Kensi nodded, moving to the sink to wet the paper towels first.

She was aware of Deeks going over to stop Monty from scratching at the window, but Kensi's attention was only on Daniel. She returned to him and wiped the child's hands clean, wondering how one ice cream cone had made such a mess. She pat them dry with another sheet of paper towel, then tossed the rubbish into the bin on the floor at the end of the kitchen counter.

'Thanks.' Daniel said stiffly and shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants.

'You're welcome.' Kensi replied by default, then located her bags and instructed for Daniel to do the same with his own.

Deeks rejoined them, picking up his own sole bag, and followed the pair to the nearby staircase. He called Monty, who hurried to catch up with them in interest of sniffing around upstairs as well.

'Let's see...' Kensi's gaze trailed around the hallway at the top of the stairs.

She pushed open doors to see what rooms were within, then turned to the waiting group.

'We have the bathroom, then Daniel's room.' She announced, indicating to their right. 'Our room is across from the bathroom.' Kensi added to Deeks, giving him a warning glare.

She tried to be enthusiastic for Daniel's sake, though Kensi had little experience with children, but the boy remained distracted and distant. She was correct in assuming he would stride passed them and go to his new room to look around. Kensi readjusted her grip on her own bags and headed into the bedroom she and Deeks would unfortunately be sharing, just as they had when they'd been undercover as a married couple.

However, she'd made only made it to the doorway when she halted. Daniel hadn't gone far either, and it was his voice that surprised her. Kensi turned to him, seeing his blue eyes alight with curiosity and wonder.

'What about Monty?' The eight-year-old asked. 'Where will he sleep?'

Kensi didn't have an answer, so she glanced at Deeks. It was his dog, after all, and it was his decision to bring Monty along.

'Uh, on the couch.' Deeks shrugged, taking a guess. Monty would likely just sleep wherever he felt comfortable, but the Detective hadn't missed the underlining hope in Daniel's eyes. 'Or with you, if you're okay with that.'

'Yeah.' Daniel nodded with a smile. 'He can sleep in my room.'

'Let it go.' Deeks whispered to Kensi when she looked ready to object to where the dog would be sleeping.

He waited for Daniel to disappear into the boy's new room at the far end of the hall, then nudged Kensi into the bedroom.

'Let it go.' He said again. 'Come on – ugh!' Deeks winced when she elbowed him in the chest, though he had expected it.

The pair stood within the bedroom, a few feet from the doorway, and dropped their luggage onto the large rug at their feet. They each stared at the double bed towards their right with opposite reactions. They had shared a bed before, as each recalled, but that undercover mission hadn't lasted more than two weeks. Kensi and Deeks hoped they'd find Daniel's parents soon, as the longer they took the less likely they'd be found alive. And while they had confidence in their entire team's ability to do that, they were not entirely optimistic about how long they would be staying at the safe cover house together with the eight-year-old son of the missing couple.

'Behave.' Kensi jabbed a finger at Deeks' chest and chose her specific side of the bed.

'What?' Deeks chuckled. 'Okay, fine. If that's what you really want.' He teased, then left the room to seek out Daniel. Kensi might want to get properly settled in, but Deeks had very little interest in unpacking.

He reached the open doorway in a few strides, and peered inside to see what the pair were up to – he had heard the trotting of the dog's paws heading in this direction a few minutes ago. The boy sat on the smooth wooden floor, where he pat Monty with the same fondness he had shown in the car earlier. Deeks was right in guessing Monty had sneaked in to join the boy. Although Daniel didn't look happy, he did seem to be a bit calmer in the company of his new furry friend. He hadn't noticed Deeks, who remained at the doorway, as the boy rubbed Monty's back and scratched behind his ears. Even Monty paid Deeks no attention, and he decided to let the pair bond for a while longer.

Deeks decided he would head back to the bedroom and find out if Kensi had anything useful to report from Ops regarding the case, or if Callen had just been updating her. He was distracted, however, by the way Daniel's actions froze when the sound of the downstairs doorbell rang through the house.

He was suspicious, but knew the priority had to be his concern for the potential visitor – it was surely too soon for company, wasn't it? Deeks passed Kensi in the hallway and headed downstairs. He had his gun concealed under his blue shirt at his lower back, though Deeks doubted their cover had been blown so quickly.

If it was, they'd be setting a personal record, he was sure.

The glass panes of the window blurred out any defining details of the person, though he was confident there was only one. Assuming it was just an over-friendly neighbour on the other side of the door, Deeks opened it slowly without reaching for his gun. He was greeted by a rather attractive red-haired woman with green eyes and olive skin. She was dressed casually in a pair of jeans, and wore an expensive-looking long-sleeved white shirt.

'Hi!' She smiled widely at him. 'Welcome. I'm Nancy. I live just across the street. I saw you pull up and I thought I'd come over to say hello. No one has stayed in this house for a while, so I admit I was very curious.'

'Hi. That's nice.' Deeks returned, slightly caught off-guard by how cheerful she was and the strong scent of what he could only assume was some sort of perfume. 'Uh, yeah, it belongs to an aunt.' He made up the detail as he spoke, thinking it was accurate enough, and was very aware of the sound of heels on the polished floor behind him.

Surely enough, Kensi appeared beside him a few blinks later.

'Nancy. She lives across the street.' Deeks told her without taking his eyes of the person of interest. 'She came to welcome us.'

'Oh.' Kensi switched from being curious to very, though somewhat falsely, friendly. 'That's so nice of you. I'm Kensi. And this is my boyfriend, Marty.'

'It's wonderful to meet you both.' Nancy said. 'And your son, he's adorable. How old?'

'Thanks. He's eight.' Kensi nodded. 'Actually, he's our godson. We're looking after him while his parents are away.' She lied effectively, though only partially.

Kensi glanced at Deeks and didn't like the way he eyed Nancy and her low-buttoned shirt or tight jeans – it was certainly not an expression that was going to help their cover story, and Kensi immediately began to rectify it.

'Honey?' Kensi placed a hand on his arm and smiled sweetly at him, though he would notice the clear threat in her eyes. 'Why don't you go and check on him?' Kensi suggested firmly, in a way he knew wasn't a suggestion at all if he didn't want her stepping on his foot. 'Make sure he's unpacking.'

Deeks glanced at Kensi and chuckled uncomfortably, seeing all the warning signs through her smile and endearing touch.

'Right.' He nodded, turned back to Nancy in politeness. 'It was great meeting you, Nancy.' He said, before returning to the stairs.

Deeks had no idea how Kensi could think she was in any way discreet about it because he always knew when she was jealous. Now it merely amused him.

Deeks stopped at the bottom of the stairs when he looked up and saw Daniel standing at the top step, looking down at him. The boy was wary and breathing quicker than usual from where he stood there with his hand tightly gripping the side railing.

'You okay, buddy?' Deeks asked as he climbed the stairs to reach the boy.

Daniel flinched and spun around to run back to his new room. Deeks stood where the boy had been and blinked when the bedroom door abruptly slammed. Kensi approached him a few seconds later, looking concerned and questioning about what had just happened.

'What was that about?' She wondered.

'I don't know.' Deeks frowned. 'Something had him worried.'

'Nancy?' Kensi looked over her shoulder, towards the closed front door. 'No, he lives at least seven blocks away; he couldn't know her. And we've only been here twenty minutes.'

In light of Daniel's odd reaction, Kensi tried to think of ways Nancy could be the cause, and wondered how the neighbour could say how adorable Daniel was if she'd been across the street. They hadn't been outside for more than a minute after they'd arrived, and Daniel likely had his back in her direction. Of course, Nancy could easily have just been polite. There was no real reason to be suspicious of their neighbour, but neither Deeks nor Kensi could figure out what else could have possibly made Daniel so tense.

'No.' Deeks realised. 'He freaked out when he heard the doorbell.'

'Maybe he just doesn't like visitors?' Kensi suggested. 'Should we talk to him, or give him his space? What's the appropriate response to having a kid run to his room and slam the door?'

'How should I know?' Deeks shrugged. 'You're the woman.'

'Oh, really?' Kensi glared at him. 'You're really gonna go there, Deeks?'

'No, no, just theoretically...' Deeks winced in hurried, though feeble, explanation while expecting her to hit him or stamp on his foot. 'What did Callen say?' He quickly diverted the conversation.

'Nice save.' Kensi frowned disapprovingly. 'And nothing much. They're following some leads to try and make sense of things, but we still don't know where to start.'

'Think he knows something?' Deeks looked along the hallway to the closed door at the end, unsure if the silence from the room was a good or bad thing. He suspected Monty was trapped in there as well, as he hadn't seen the dog since before they'd received their unexpected visitor.

Kensi sighed heavily, not sure how much the boy might know yet had no intention to make Daniel talk about something that could be painful for him, unless they were certain he had answers to give. And she doubted he it, if it was indeed a kidnapping.

Instead, Kensi glanced at her watch and withheld a groan.

'Can you cook?' She eyed Deeks.

'You're referring to the type of meals not done in a microwave, right?' Deeks joked, sort of. 'I took a few classes.' He shrugged. 'How hard can it be, right? I'm more experienced with pancakes, scrambled eggs, sandwiches...'

'Pizza it is.' Kensi rolled her eyes and headed back down the stairs.

'What, you don't trust me?' Deeks laughed as he trailed after her.

'We're not having pancakes for dinner.' Kensi's fading reply was barely heard by the young boy peering through the crack of his door.

He watched them leave the hallway, cautious and unsure, before he shut the door again. Daniel hurried to his bed and jumped onto it stomach-first, burying his face against the pillow. He wasn't upset, just generally moody, as Daniel rolled onto his back and frowned. He shifted onto his side, facing the wall, and remained there.

It was how Kensi found him not long after.

'Daniel?' She tapped against his door as she opened it.

She saw Monty was curled up under the window, and the boy was on his side with his back facing her.

'It's time for dinner. We ordered a pizza with extra toppings.'

'I'm not hungry!' Daniel grumbled, not turning.

'Okay.' Kensi nodded to the stubborn boy, though he couldn't see her. 'I'm sure you're hungry, and you do need to eat. But that's okay. You can come downstairs whenever you're ready.' She promised in a kind voice, understanding his avoidance towards her and how much easier it was to push everyone away.

Kensi left the room, leaving the door partially ajar. Daniel rolled over to look at her retreating form, and sat up when he heard Deeks' voice calling up the stairs.

'Monty!' Deeks said. 'Daddy's got your dinner. Come and get it!'

Daniel didn't hear all of what Kensi argued back, mostly telling Deeks he better not be feeding the dog pizza. Deeks' words had an impact on Daniel, who missed the company of parents and a normal home. He felt sad when Monty jumped up and ran from the room, pushing the door fully open in the process. Daniel felt abandoned as he sat on his new bed, alone again. He wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his chin on his knees, thinking about the events of the previous hours and wishing things could go back to the way they'd been before.

Daniel delayed moving for as long as he could, in his own stubbornness to keep his distance, but his stomach continued to growl and eventually he could find no other reason to stay were he was. Finally, with every ounce of reluctance, he rose from the bed and walked to his door. Peering around the corner, Daniel exhaled and made his way to the top of the stairs. He heard Deeks talking from the living room and Kensi laughed at whatever he was saying. Daniel couldn't see them yet, but the sounds were comforting to him.

It was how a home was supposed to sound like.

Slowly, the eight-year-old descended each step and watched the pair when they turned around to look at him. Kensi smiled with relief, and Deeks got up to direct Daniel to the kitchen where the box of pizza remained open. The boy followed him, and picked a piece from the offered box, while giving Deeks a shy smile.

'Thanks.'

'Any time, buddy.' Deeks replied.

He gave Daniel's shoulder a friendly pat, and the boy didn't step away or shrug him off.

Kensi watched the exchange with a hidden smile, thinking they were making progress. When Daniel got onto one of the stools and Deeks continued to stand across from him, she decided to let her partner entertain the boy while she went upstairs to prepare a bath for Daniel. It was starting to get a bit late. Kensi wasn't sure when exactly an eight-year-old should go to bed, but seeing the boy yawn into the back of his hand was clue enough.

~ LB ~

While Daniel was in the bathroom, Kensi and Deeks returned to their own bedroom to finish unpacking. They hadn't forgotten to check in with Ops as well, and while Kensi prepared to do that she noticed an odd look Deeks was giving her.

'What?' She snipped.

'Admit it, you enjoyed it.' Deeks commented. 'Playing mother. Preparing his bath, checking the temperature, and then telling him get ready for bed.'

'No.' Kensi scoffed and avoided his gaze. 'I'm just doing our job.'

'Sure.' Deeks nodded, seeing through her denial.

'Hm.' Kensi frowned at him, and initiated the call to Ops.

_'Yeah?'_ Eric answered.

'Just checking in.' Kensi told him. 'Things are fine. We had a bit of a rough start, but I think Daniel's just trying to adjust.'

_'That is understandable.'_ Hetty's voice joined in, as Eric had apparently put the phone on speaker. _'We noticed you received a visitor this afternoon?'_

'Nancy.' Kensi nodded. 'Hey, Eric, do you think you could do a background check on our neighbours? Daniel just had a weird reaction to company, and it can't hurt to check.'

_'Sure.'_ Eric answered, and was heard typing at the keyboard already.

_'I chose that neighbourhood myself, Ms Blye.'_ Hetty said, sounding offended by the request as though she could have missed something important about the neighbours.

'Right.' Kensi winced at the imagined glare she assumed Hetty had on her face. 'We just want to be sure.'

_'This could take a while.'_ Eric said. _'I'll give you an update tomorrow morning, okay?'_

'That's fine.' Kensi sighed and hung up. 'I think I offended Hetty.'

'Then I'm glad it wasn't me.' Deeks chuckled.

Kensi dropped the phone onto the bed and sighed, then paused with a serious expression crossing over her face. Her gaze trailed through the open doorway of the bedroom to stare at the closed bathroom door.

'Daniel's been in there for a while.' She realised importantly. 'Deeks, go check on him.'

Deeks walked across the hallway and knocked on the door, pressing his ear to it to listen for any sounds. It was almost silent, apart from a very faint, muffled noise. He didn't detect any distress, but Daniel didn't answer when Deeks spoke his name through the door. Turning the knob, as it wasn't locked, Deeks slowly peered around the ajar door to see if everything was okay.

'I got it.' He said to Kensi, then stepped into the bathroom.

He closed the door for privacy, and looked towards the bath where the boy sat. Daniel was sitting in the cold water, with his arms wrapped around his legs and his face partially pressed against his knees. He had tried to be quiet, but Deeks could see the tear tracks leading down the boy's cheeks from Daniel's reddened eyes.

Deeks immediately knew what had happened. The shock of being told his parents were missing and couldn't be found must have worn off, paving the way for raw sadness and the fear of losing them forever.

'Hey, buddy.' Deeks said softly, causing Daniel to turn and look at him.

Deeks wished he hadn't, because the sight of the distraught boy made him feel incredibly sad as well.

'I'm sorry.' Daniel sobbed, feeling embarrassed for crying and not getting out of the tub when he was supposed to.

'It's okay.' Deeks assured him. 'Come on.'

He tried to encourage the boy to get out, since the water was likely freezing by now. He looked around the tiled room and located a cupboard, which he searched through for a fluffy blue towel. It should have been an awkward situation at first, but Deeks merely stepped into the role of carer to do what he had to in order to get Daniel warm and comfortable again. He wrapped the towel around the boy's shoulders and let him dry himself, while Deeks went to the tub and pulled the plug.

Daniel dried and dressed, but struggled with his shirt. His pyjamas looked new – they were vividly coloured a dark red with golden crescent moons printed on them. They fitted perfectly, with the hem of his long pants folded nicely over his ankles, though the shirt hadn't been unbuttoned before the boy had tried to pull it over his head.

Deeks helped him adjust it, then stood by the doorway while Daniel brushed his teeth. Stepping down from the stool, Daniel looked over at Deeks and rubbed his eyes with his fists It was the first time he'd looked at Deeks since the boy had left the bath, yet his gratitude was evident in every ounce of his expression.

Deeks went to lead the way to the boy's bedroom to make sure he was okay, but was surprised when Daniel rushed to keep up with him and wrapped his smaller hands around Deeks' wrist. Looking down at the first contact Daniel had initiated, the Detective wasn't sure what to think of the sudden sign of forming trust and acceptance.

It only lasted a moment - once they reached the room, Daniel let him go and ran to the bed.

'Monty!' Deeks called for his dog, who soon appeared at the doorway. 'Keep Daniel company, okay?' He said firmly.

Monty whined and crossed the room, jumping onto it to curl up at the end of the bed within reach of Daniel's covered toes. Deeks reached to switch off the light and walked back along the hallway to let Kensi know what had happened. Daniel watched him depart the room, then sniffled again. He felt Monty move across the bed and lay down beside him.

Smiling sadly, Daniel wrapped his arms around the dog and cuddled him close in a way a scared child would his teddy bear.

~ LB ~

Despite having shared a bed before, it had been a weird moment for Kensi and Deeks to take turns in the bathroom then get into the same bed. Kensi had rattled off countless threats while Deeks tried extremely hard not to laugh.

Hours later, Deeks opened his eyes and blinked away sleep. He paused and listened carefully to the moonlit darkness of the room. He heard it again - there was an odd sound coming from downstairs.

Upon hearing it, and being sure he hadn't imagined it, Deeks was instantly alert.

'Kensi.' He hissed and shook her shoulder lightly.

She grumbled, but quickly opened her eyes and mirrored his action of reaching for their gun. They got out of bed, tossing back the covers as they did so, and crept to the door. Peering into the hallway, they heard the sound more clearly. Someone was moving around downstairs, and it was a worrying wonder as to why the alarms hadn't been triggered.

'Eric, we might have a problem.' Kensi whispered into her phone, having just dialled Ops in case something was going on and they would need back-up.

_'None of the security has been tripped.'_ Was Eric's confused response. _'Are you sure?'_

'Stand by.' Kensi told him.

She ended the call and slipped the phone into her pocket of the pants she had worn to bed, along with a tank top. Deeks wore pants as well, with a plain white shirt.

The pair made their way down the steps, quietly and carefully, as they gripped their guns in preparation of facing an intruder. Despite the large windows, which were mostly covered by blinds, only a very limited amount of moonlight leaked across the downstairs floor. They couldn't see through the darkness, so Deeks reached over and switched on the kitchen light.

When the brightness flooded the room, they raised their guns to aim it at the one responsible for making the noise.

'Ah!' Daniel yelped loudly and a glass of milk slipped from his hand.

He was too distracted by it hitting the floor, and the result of the contents spilling everywhere, that he hadn't noticed their guns. Kensi and Deeks quickly concealed their weapons, while Kensi sighed heavily with annoyance.

'Daniel.' She complained, wishing he hadn't been creeping around the house in the dark. It wasn't a safe thing to do while being under the protective custody of two law enforcers with guns.

'I-I'm sorry!' Daniel stuttered, still alarmed from the light being switched on, and bent to try to save his milk. He grabbed the glass, but the white liquid had already puddled across the floor.

'I've got it.' Deeks offered, looking around for the paper towels. 'No big deal, buddy.'

'Come on.' Kensi reached for the boy's hand, though he didn't take it.

Daniel stared at his empty glass and bit his lip, but was too stubborn to get upset about it. She got him a fresh glass of milk, and waited until he drank it, before she nudged him back towards the stairs.

'No more sneaking around, okay?' Kensi lectured on the way up. 'If you need something, just ask us. Or at least turn a light on.'

'I didn't want to wake you.' Daniel muttered.

'I'd rather you wake us than give us a heart attack.' Kensi sighed. 'Come on.' She nudged him towards his bed.

'Move over.' Daniel gave Monty a light shove - the dog had sprawled out on his back in the absence of the bed's only other occupant.

'You good?' Kensi checked with a reassuring smile.

'Yeah.' Daniel nodded, pulling the covers back over himself.

'Okay.' Kensi nodded with relief. 'Goodnight.' She turned and left the room, getting out her phone as she went. 'False alarm. Spilled milk.'

'Roger that.' Eric nodded from where he stood in from of the main screen in Ops.

He and Nell had been watching the footage from the surveillance cameras. They used a nearby street camera to observe the kitchen light of the house turning back off, and wondered if the poor kid had gotten a fright during what they assumed had happened. Checking the time, Eric went over to his computer to set up the necessary security functions for the night. He and Nell needed to sleep as well, so they'd prepared the security in a way that if they turned on the "night mode", the whole team would be alerted if anything notable occurred – such as a triggered alarm or activated motion sensor.

Yawning, Eric prepared to leave for the night.

He paused by the doorway while Nell added a few final data touches to the computers, until she headed over to join him. Eric left once she reached the doorway, though Nell stayed behind for a moment longer. She looked at the lit screen of the darkened house, as seen from the camera on the street, and smiled.

'Goodnight.' Nell whispered into the darkened room as she flipped the switch and left the room.

The doors closed behind her, and the building fell quiet once again.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** What do you think so far? Do you like Daniel? Monty was introduced as a main character from this chapter onwards, and next chapter will be the similar for Nate. Please let me know if you have any requests. It means a lot to me and the progress of the story to receive feedback, so if you've read this please take a moment to send a review as I would really appreciate it.

Above all, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	3. Pieces of the Puzzle

Thank you to all of my reviewers for your feedback! As promised, here is another chapter - which is twice as long as usual. There is simply so much going on, so I had to take longer to get it finished and ready to be added on here. Also, a warning for some violence in this chapter.

* * *

**~ Pieces of the Puzzle ~**

Golden Los Angeles sunlight streamed through the partially curtained windows of the house early the following morning. Kensi and Deeks wished it was the soft glow of the light that woke them, or the distant sounds of nature and people in the streets outside, but it wasn't. In fact, what brought them from their rest was an outright invasion upon their formally peaceful slumber.

'Monty!' Kensi groaned and rolled onto her stomach. She pressed her face against her pillow as the dog's loud barks were heard from downstairs. 'Deeks!' Kensi complained, giving him a nudge, while reaching her other hand to yank his pillow from under him and use it to cover her head.

'It's Tuesday.' Deeks yawned into the sheet-covered mattress with less agitation, though having his pillow pulled from under him was a ruder awakening than his dog's barks. 'I take him for a walk every Tuesday morning.'

'At this time?' Kensi emerged from under his pillow, preferring to use it as a weapon against him.

She swatted his back as Deeks rolled over and sat upright in the bed. He pretended not to notice Kensi had somehow ended up with most of the blankets, and she continued to hold his pillow hostage in her offensive grip.

'Yeah.' He sighed, then got up to avoid her pillow assaults before she increased the force behind each whack.

Leaving the bed, Deeks made his way across their shared bedroom to begin sorting through his mostly-unpacked bag for some clothes to wear. He snatched a pair of shorts and a faded grey shirt, which he pulled over his head while walking to the bathroom across the hall, despite still wearing the white one he'd slept in.

With Monty still barking, and the sunlight filling the room, Kensi saw no other choice than to get up as well. She ran her hand through her hair and yawned, glancing to the empty space of the bed beside her with a contemplative expression. She blamed it on their past mission together as a married couple, but sharing a bed with Deeks was much less conflicting or awkward than Kensi had expected.

Shuddering, she got out of bed and went about a modified version of her morning routine.

Deeks vacated the bathroom and headed left to sleepily make his way down the stairs, longing for the cup of coffee he'd have to wait for. A red lead was sticking out of the back pocket of his shorts, which he reached for once he located Monty. The dog spotted him and jumped down from the window seat to run over to Deeks, wagging his tail in anticipation of the walk he knew he'd be going on.

'Daddy's here, Monty.' Deeks declared, enthusiasm leaking into his tone as the dog's excitement was contagious. He attached the lead to Monty's black collar and directed him to the front door. 'Come on, let's go.'

Deeks unlocked the door and pushed it open, taking the opportunity to glance around the sunlit neighbourhood. He was sure, if he stood on the roof of any of the houses, he'd be able to see the ocean. However, there would be no early-morning surfing for him today. Deeks allowed Monty the chance to sniff around their short front yard and nearby areas of the street, but was careful to avoid any of the motions sensors - just in case. Deeks shuddered to think what Hetty would say if Monty decided to relieve himself on one of the state-of-the-art Government surveillance and security equipment, which they probably shouldn't be using on a simple enough case of protecting a child in a cover house rather than a high-valued military asset to national security.

With those uncomfortable thoughts in mind, Deeks gave the lead a light tug and led Monty up the side of the street, taking advantage of a perfectly good excuse to scope out the neighbouring houses as he walked by.

Inside the house, Kensi dressed in the first pieces of clothing she'd grabbed – a long-sleeved purple shirt, and a pair of comfortable blue jeans. She turned left out of the bedroom and walked to the third room in the upstairs hallway, wondering if Monty had woken the boy as well. Reaching the child's temporary bedroom, Kensi peered around the frame of the door and saw Daniel laying awake in his bed.

'Good morning.' Kensi greeted him with a smile.

Daniel mumbled something in return and rolled onto his side to face away from her. The boy pulled the light blue blankets over his head in clear rejection towards her company and being awake so early in the day.

'I know it's still really early, but you do have school today.' Kensi reminded him. 'Deeks will make pancakes when he gets back, so you'll need to get out of bed soon.'

'Where'd he go?' Daniel flipped off his sheets and sat upright.

His eyes were wide with worry and showed his vulnerable uncertainty. Kensi's multiple years of working undercover for NCIS made it easy for her to hide the surprise she felt when realising how quickly Daniel's fear of additional abandonment could be triggered.

'It's okay.' She assured him. 'He just took Monty for a morning walk.'

'Oh.' Daniel said, and ducked his head. 'I don't wanna go to school.'

'Sorry, kiddo.' Kensi shrugged. 'You have to.' She nodded and left the hallway to descend the stairs on her way to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

Kensi stood by the counter as she slowly sipped from her steaming cup, looking around the house in consideration of its relatively empty space. She decided to add a few personal touches if she had the time later that day, as it didn't look right otherwise - it was so bare and purely practical. It might not be the best idea to add some personal items to a place they were supposed to accept as temporary, yet the emptiness of the house unnerved her.

Kensi put her mug in the sink and walked to the front door. She stepped outside and proceeded through the motions of checking the mail box and collecting the morning paper.

There weren't many of the neighbours active at the early time of day, though she kept a discreet watch for anyone who might be in their yards or preparing for the day. She saw a businessman presumably leaving for work in his shiny silver car a few houses down on the left, a teenager sitting on the steps of his house far across the street to her right, and almost directly across from Kensi was Nancy. The red-haired woman saw Kensi watching her and gave the woman a wide wave, while using her free hand to water a bush of vibrant red roses near her front door. Kensi waved back out of false politeness, then shifted her gaze to movement nearby.

She spotted Deeks heading towards her with Monty at his side, and knew it was in the interest of their cover for her to cheerily greet him, though she'd rather simply ignore him to go back inside.

'Morning, Sunshine!' Deeks aimed a bright smile at Kensi when he came to stop in front of her, standing a few feet away from the front door of their safe cover house.

The pair were professionally aware of having a potential audience, as they stood outside the house with the occasional neighbour glancing in their direction, but there was one observer they were inattentive of.

Daniel, still dressed in his pyjamas, was sitting on his window seat in his bedroom to stare down at the pair from the upstairs window. He couldn't overhear what Kensi or Deeks were saying, but was content to observe them as they smiled at each other before returning to the house. Leaning back, the boy sighed and a frown crossed his face as he remained uncertain of what he thought of his assigned protectors. Daniel was getting used to their company and what to expect from them, but after the night before when Deeks had come to his rescue in the bathroom, the boy was certainly liking Deeks more than Kensi. She'd been the one to tell him the bad news, and wanted him to go to school when he was against it, which only brought his moodiness to the surface again.

Daniel knew, no matter what NCIS said, that they were gone, missing, and probably never coming back.

Daniel's face crumbled with emotions; he ran back to his bed to dive under his covers again. Underneath his imagined safety, the eight-year-old tried to work out what he was supposed to do about the situation he was in. Daniel didn't know what was supposed to happen next, or how he could make the hurting stop. Instead, the boy wanted to shut it out as much as he could.

He might not be able to deny the truth any longer, but he wasn't willing to face it either.

Daniel stayed buried amongst his soft, many-layered blankets for a while - until Kensi knocked at his door and told him he had to leave it. She said breakfast was almost ready and he couldn't be late for school. The young boy didn't care about any of that, as he lay still and tried to pretend her away. She wasn't the one he wanted to hear, and he deemed that Kensi had no right to stand in his doorway to tell him all the things a mother was expected to at the start of the day. His attempts to evade her didn't work because Kensi kept insisting, and Daniel's eyes prickled with tears as he yanked the blankets from his head.

'Go away!' Daniel raised his voice to her, wanting to hide away from the world he felt she kept exposing him to.

'Daniel.' Kensi said in a firm tone.

She didn't like the way things were going. They had to get to work, and the boy needed to attend school. There was no third option, so somehow she had to convince Daniel to get up, dressed, and have his breakfast before he risked being late for school despite their early start.

'I'm not going.' Daniel stated, once again retreating underneath his sheets.

'This is not a debate.' Kensi frowned.

There was no response, and she was running out of options. Kensi didn't want to overstep her boundaries, but they had to get Daniel up for school.

'Daniel, please get out of bed.' Kensi spoke in a lower tone in attempt to remain as friendly as possible.

'I don't want to.' Daniel tossed the covers off his head, and stared furiously at her.

'I know.' Kensi nodded. 'Sometimes I don't want to go to work, but I have to.'

'Pancakes are ready!' Deeks' overly-cheerful voice was heard from downstairs.

He hadn't missed the raised tones from the boy a moment earlier, though he had been too far away to make out exactly what was going on.

'Get them while they're hot!' Deeks continued, hoping to motivate the boy to come downstairs. 'Marty's speciality – you wouldn't want to miss out!'

'And Deeks did go to all the trouble of making pancakes today.' Kensi added to Daniel. She was thankful for Deeks' unexpected interruption, as it gave her something to use as a bargaining chip.

The boy's anger faltered instantly at those words, especially when he couldn't elude away his own hunger. Nor did he want Deeks to be sad or disappointed if he went to the trouble of making a big breakfast, only to have no one come downstairs to eat it. No matter how stubborn he was, Daniel knew Kensi wouldn't leave his room until he got out of bed – there was something about her that seemed so consistently in charge.

Grumbling, Daniel kicked off the remaining blankets, and prepared to get dressed for the day.

Kensi exhaled with relief and left the room to see if Deeks had actually cooked a decent meal, or was trying to pass off mangled lumps of would-be-pancakes as food. As she crossed the hallway of the upstairs landing, Kensi had no idea that what just occurred in Daniel's room was only the beginning of what was going to become a very difficult morning.

* * *

'An eagle?' Sam repeated and eyed Callen incredulously.

The pair walked through the main doors in preparation of starting another day of work, still involved in a conversation they'd started on the drive there.

'If you could be any animal, that's what you'd choose?'

'Sure. Why not?' Callen shrugged. 'They fly. And they're excellent hunters – very high up in the food chain. You got something better?'

'A lion.' Sam nodded confidently. 'King of the jungle.'

'That's adorable.' Callen snorted. 'Sam Hanna, Lion King. Hey, don't they have a lot of hair?' He teased, indicating to Sam's bald head with amusement.

'Lions eat birds.' Sam narrowed his eyes at his partner. 'Even big ones.'

'Yeah, if they can catch them first.' Callen smirked. He turned the corner and halted, looking over at the bullpen with perplexity. 'What's wrong with this picture?'

Kensi was seated at her desk, her focus resting on her computer screen. She had a slight frown on her face and constantly tapped her fingers against the surface of her wooden desk. Diagonally across from her, at his own desk, was Deeks. He'd just finished signing a file and slammed it shut before he unceremoniously dropped it onto a large pile of completed paperwork. They both appeared to be working hard, and quite efficiently, despite the fact it was barely nine in the morning.

Sam even stared down at his watch and flicked it to ensure he wasn't imagining the scene playing out in front of him.

'They've clearly been here a while.' Callen continued. 'Did something happen?' He inquired about the case, though he was certain someone in Ops would have called them in sooner if they'd finally gotten a solid lead on the case regarding the kidnapping of Lieutenant and Petty Officer Ellis.

'Nope.' Kensi replied shortly. Her tone indicated she wasn't in the best of moods without her having to look away from her screen, which seemed to hold all of her attention despite the scowl she gave it.

'There is definitely something wrong with this picture.' Callen nodded.

'Definitely.' Sam agreed. 'They're both here before us, and working. Something's going on.'

'Did everything go smoothly with Daniel?' Callen wondered.

'No.' Deeks scoffed, glancing over at them in a way Kensi refused to, and yet his expression also reflected their shared annoyance. 'No, it did not.'

'That was one kid who didn't want to go to school.' Kensi added.

'We're here early because we had to drop the kid off.' Deeks explained.

'Now that is adorable.' Callen joked, peering at Sam, and withheld a chuckle.

He moved to sit at his place beside Kensi, making sure not to invade her personal space for his own safety in case her bad mood was leading them into false security about just how irritated she actually was.

'They had their first morning of dropping their kid off at school.' Callen finished, swinging his chair to each side a little as he lounged in it.

'Not our kid.' Kensi snipped.

'Your responsibility.' Callen shrugged. 'Same difference.'

'No.' Kensi turned slowly to glare at him. 'If he had been my kid, he would have got out of bed and eaten his food when he was told. He wouldn't throw his plate onto the floor after breakfast, or scream at the top of his lungs about how much he doesn't want to go to school.'

'Ouch.' Sam winced, though he hid a smirk.

'It took an hour.' Deeks huffed. 'A whole hour, man. Once he was fed and dressed, we pretty much had to drag him out to the car. That went well with the neighbours.'

'Well, you got him there in the end.' Callen said. 'That's what counts, right?'

'How do you do it?' Deeks quizzed Sam. 'If your daughter doesn't want to go to school?'

'I wouldn't know.' Sam answered smugly. 'She knows if it's a school day then she has to get up and go to school. We don't have a problem.'

'Not even once?' Kensi asked with disbelief, finally lifting her gaze from her computer screen.

Sam's chance to respond was interrupted by hurried footsteps, causing them all to look over at Eric as he reached part-way down the stairs and stopped to whistle. The group of four didn't move right away because they knew a case was already in place, so they merely waited for him to speak and give them a good enough reason to follow him up to Ops if it was necessary.

'We have a lead.' Eric stated with a prideful nod of his head.

'What sort of lead?' Sam eagerly asked and was instantly on his feet.

'We may have just found some footage of the kidnapping.' Eric answered. He turned to head back to Ops, with the assumption that the others were on their way to join him.

'Yeah, I'd say that's a lead.' Callen stated.

'More than just a lead.' Sam agreed, already following after Eric.

'Bigger than nothing, and better than something.' Callen nodded by the time he'd reach the top of the stairs and swerved to head into the Ops room.

Kensi and Deeks hadn't said a word, but were close behind the other pair and wasted no time standing with them in front of the main screen.

'We got lucky, mostly.' Nell started immediately. 'We scoured every possible source for some kind of footage of what happened, because the traffic cameras were down.'

'We found four.' Eric brought up each footage as a medium box on the screen. 'The first two are dashboard cameras from patrol cars. The third a cab camera, and the fourth was from a tourist filming the road, trees, the sky...' He trailed off, mentally trying to work out why someone would film such random scenery, then shrugged and continued.

Eric tapped at his keyboard to pinpoint several screenshots they'd made from the videos. The pictures overlapped the videos on the main screen, and were arranged in chronological order.

'So the blue car belonging to the Ellis family arrived at the scene with no bullet holes on the side.' Kensi summarised, stepping forward to have a better look at the images. 'It suddenly swerved and drove off the road, into the bushes. A frozen food delivery truck also goes off the road, and blocks the view of the Ellis car from passing traffic.'

'And from the cab camera we can barely make out Lieutenant Ellis getting out of the car. He raises his gun, then ducks for cover.' Callen joined her side. 'Bullets mark the driver side door...' He had nothing else to add, grunting with annoyance when they had another gap in time - the next image was after the delivery truck had left the scene.

'They're gone.' Kensi said with exasperation.

'Hold on.' Sam narrowed his eyes and walked right over to the screen.

He enlarged the second-last photo of the abandoned car and pointed to the section of the grass beside the open front passenger side of the blue car.

'No bear.'

'There was a teddy bear left behind, right? Presumably by Petty Officer Ellis.' Deeks recalled and examined the pictures on the screen, comparing them to the last one Sam had enlarged. 'It's there, but not until right before the semi-truck drove off the road – the one with the guy who found the car and reported it.'

With the new information, Eric brought up the mentioned footage.

They watched the slowed feed of the car being seemingly abandoned, without the bear, and nothing afterwards. The next showed the bear already in place with no solid clues in between.

'Someone definitely shot at Lieutenant Ellis.' Kensi spoke, nodding her head in confirmation. 'He took cover and someone else shot up the door. They only aimed at him, so he has to be the target.'

'We knew this already.' Eric mentioned.

'No, not for sure.' Callen corrected. 'We assumed it was a kidnapping, and now we know it was.'

'What about the driver of the frozen food truck?' Sam asked. 'He just parked there, blocking the shooting from the rest of the road, and never reported it in?'

'Maybe the driver was the shooter.' Callen theorised. 'Either way, we gotta find it.'

'On it.' Eric nodded and returned to his desk.

'Nell, keep checking.' Callen added. 'Figure out if there's anything significant about the bear - find out where it was bought, and by who. And see if any other cars stopped around that area; Ellis and his wife had to have gone somewhere, maybe even in the truck.'

'I will do that.' She agreed and joined Eric's side to resume her work.

'Why is it so complicated?' Deeks complained. 'Wouldn't it be easier to just kidnap them from their home than risk being seen by any person or cop on the road?'

'Maybe.' Callen said, staring at the zoomed-in picture of the teddy bear. 'I still think this is more than just a kidnapping.'

'Either way, Mr Callen, someone is sending us a message.' Hetty said while walking into the room with her eyes fixated on the screen as equally as theirs were.

'What kind of help?' Callen challenged her words.

'The friendly kind.' Hetty smiled and glanced at her watch. 'If anyone can even begin to make sense of this many-layered puzzle we've been handed, I have full confidence in his ability to do so. We need to put some of these pieces together, and he's up for the task.'

'And if he can't?' Sam wondered.

'Lieutenant Ellis and his wife are running out of time.' Hetty said gravely. 'If we don't find some answers soon, their chances of being reunited with their son will be very low.'

'We will find them.' Kensi insisted with fierce determination.

'I know, Ms Blye.' Hetty nodded. 'Let's just make sure it's before it's too late.'

* * *

College had been a good time to dream about the plans he had to travel the world one day, though it dimmed when he found out what he was good at. After that, work consumed any free time he had and it was where his dedication remained. It seemed an impossible consideration, thinking on the amount of places he'd had the chance to visit in the last two years alone.

Stepping into the Los Angeles International Airport brought back a lot of reality regarding his secret love for travel. There were also strong memories of days he'd spent behind a desk in college, thinking about all the places he wanted to see and explore, plus all the cultures he'd hoped to experience. Back then, his reasons for travel were purely adventurous whereas now things had taken a much more serious turn.

'Good afternoon, Mr Madsen.' A man in a black suit approached him. Even while he was talking, the somewhat unfamiliar man trailed his gaze around the nearby space of the airport with the air of caution and importance.

'Do you have it, Agent Niles?'

'As requested.' Niles nodded and reached into the interior folds of his jacket to offer a file to his company. The NCIS brand was printed on the front of the folder, though this was no unexpected for the one receiving it.

'Would you like an escort? For added security, of course.' Niles offered. 'A limo, perhaps? Or a rental car if you want to be additionally discreet, Mr Madsen.'

'That won't be necessary.' He said and shook hands with Niles, impressing their farewell as he had more importance places to be. He stepped away from Niles and reached to retrieve his suitcase from the ground, then turned to walk towards the exit. Pausing at the doorway, he glanced over his shoulder to watch Agent Niles getting out a cell phone to conduct a call.

Waiting until Niles was in mid-conversation, he slipped outside to call for a cab.

He gripped the NCIS file under his arm, keeping it firm in place, and felt reasonably uncomfortable about standing out in the open while he waited for his transportation. He should be used to the danger and suspicion around every corner, after all the work he'd done overseas recently, but still it made him quite nervous.

'Finally.' He exhaled when a cab parked beside him.

He got into the back seat, sliding his suitcase across it, and gave the tanned driver the address of their intended destination. As the cab drove back into the mass of traffic, the back passenger carefully slipped the folder into the suitcase for safe-keeping. Leaning back in his seat, he exhaled and glanced through the window of the cab. When the cab came to a stop at a long street, the man got out and paid the driver. Waiting until the vehicle had driven into the distance, he lifted out his new phone and dialled a very familiar number while canvassing the neighbourhood with his usual analytical interest.

_'I trust everything went as planned for your flight, Mr Getz?'_

'Apart from a few minor booking issues, yeah.' Nate answered Hetty, wondering how she knew he was the one calling before he'd said anything. 'I'm a block away from the house now. Does she know?'

_'It is very likely that she does.'_ Hetty replied. _'You know what to do. Agent Blye will meet you outside the house when you're done.'_

'Okay. Bye.' Nate hung up and pocked his phone while observing the house.

He wished he had somewhere to store his suitcase while he visited, so it would be less awkward, but Nate didn't want to linger until Kensi showed up. Crossing the freshly-mowed grass, he straightened his tall posture and cleared his throat. Nate hesitated for a few seconds longer before he raised his hand to knock loudly against the bluish front door.

'Yes?' A brunette, with hazel eyes shining up at him, answered a short time later.

'Hi.' Nate said, trying to get rid of the initial awkwardness by showing his ID. 'I'm Nate Getz. I work with NCIS. Are you Jodie Larson?'

'I am.' She nodded and opened the door widely. 'Is this about Daniel and his missing parents?'

'How do you know about that?' Nate asked only to be sure of her reason, since he wasn't surprised by her words. Hetty said she'd probably know about those events, though the extent of her knowledge was yet to be revealed.

'Andrea Reynolds is his teacher. We've been close friends since High School. When I went on maternity leave, she took over my class - we still keep in touch.' Jodie explained.

'May I come in?' Nate asked politely. 'I have a few questions I'd like to ask you about Daniel Ellis that may be prudent to our investigation.'

'Of course.' Jodie stepped aside, allowing him to enter her homey house. 'I just fed Joshua, so he should sleep for while.'

'Joshua is your baby?' Nate guessed, based on the time of day and the fact her maternity leave was still in place.

He moved to sit at the kitchen table and looked across it as she seated herself in front of him.

'Yes.' Jodie nodded. 'So, how can I help? Is Daniel okay?'

'He's safe.' Nate told her without really answering the question.

Being "okay" was more than just being safe, he knew.

'According to my records, you've been Daniel's teacher for three years in total? Is that correct?'

'Yes, I have.' Jodie replied.

She folded her jacket closed, then crossed her arms over the polished surface of the table while considering how much information he might want or need to know about the particular topic. Nate thought she seemed a little defensive, almost secretive, yet Jodie was genuinely willing to help – he could see the concern she held for Daniel reflecting in her eyes.

'I taught him in first grade shortly after the Ellis family moved to Los Angeles, so Daniel was a bit behind the other kids at first. I then taught him in third grade, and part of fourth until I went on maternity leave five months ago.' Jodie elaborated. 'Wouldn't Andrea be more helpful with the investigation? I mean, she's been his teacher more recently than I have. All I can tell you is what happened in the past, at least many months ago.'

'We believe the kidnapping may have been planned for a while.' Nate shared. 'Anything you could tell us will be helpful. Having a better idea about Daniel will also help us to protect him, until his parents can be found.'

'Of course.' Jodie sighed, understanding. 'Well, he's a very bright boy, though he has trouble making friends. Daniel tried to be friendly when he first came to the school, but no one seemed to like him. It's a shame, really - he's such a kind boy.'

'It says his grade are average.' Nate said, flipping through the school-related papers he had with him.

'Overall.' Jodie commented. 'Last year he did exceptionally well in all of his subjects. I was impressed by the sudden change, and suspected he had a lot more potential than he usually showed in class. I brought his parents in at the end of the team to tell them about how well their son had been doing...' She frowned at the memory, lowering her gaze as she revisited it in her mind.

'How did they react?' Nate asked curiously.

He thought any parent would be very proud of their kid for doing so well in school, yet Jodie's expression told him a different outcome was involved in regards to the Ellis family.

'It's hard to say.' Jodie sighed, shaking her head. 'I expected them to be thrilled, and proud, but they just...They went very quiet. It was last year, but I remember the look on Daniel's face that day. He was so hopeful. I think his grades reflected his desire to please, but after that afternoon his grades dropped back to average. They've stayed that way ever since, from what I hear.'

'Were you able to observe other interactions between Daniel and his parents?' Nate worried.

'Sure, many times.' Jodie shrugged. 'They were always looking out for him and making sure he was safe. A few years ago, I was on bus duty almost every afternoon – I supervised the children leaving the grounds and getting on the buses. Daniel was always walked to the car by his mother, and she was never late to pick him up. Not once. I would even say she was early on most days.'

'Until yesterday.' Nate pointed out.

'Right.' Jodie looked away sadly. 'Do you know anything, like who took them or why?'

'Nothing I can discuss.'

'Of course.' Jodie said again, expression a level of comprehension that earned her an odd look from Nate. 'Oh, my father was in the LAPD for most of my life. I was raised around police protocols and terminology. Andrea and I went to the academy together, until we realised teaching was our true passion. Honestly, I just wanted to live long enough to have a family.'

'I'm so glad that whoever did this at least left Daniel alone.' She exhaled with heavy relief.

'Yeah.' Nate nodded, unsure which points to cover next – he had limited time to spend there, and the Ellis family didn't have all the time in the world either. 'I was told you kept drawings and work from your classes - things the children have made?'

'I do.' Jodie smiled. 'You can learn a lot about kids from their drawings. Even with their limited knowledge of the written world, I always praise the wonderful stories they come up with. I could never throw away things like that. Some of them are very talented.'

She left the table and went to search through a filing cabinet in the living room. Jodie extracted several papers and returned to the kitchen, spreading them out on the surface in front of Nate.

'I don't keep every piece.' Jodie added. 'Just the really good or meaningful ones.'

Nate examined each painting Daniel had made. There was an obvious theme involving the ocean in come capacity, such as a big ship floating on the surface with a big whale swimming underwater beneath it. There were also drawings of various animals or school-related subjects (such as historical time periods or environment awareness), but Nate saw nothing out of the ordinary. There were no signs of Daniel having witness something that would have him drawing people drowning, being sad, or in situations that were a bit above the normal thought process of an eight-year-old boy.

There was nothing of apparent significance, from a psychological point of view.

'I know what you're looking for.' Jodie noticed his focused examinations. 'It's not in his paintings. Daniel isn't very fond of art, so he doesn't always participate. When he first came to Los Angeles, and started school, he was very moody. I hoped to encourage him to paint as a form of expressive outlet. Unlike most kids, it just didn't work with Daniel.'

'He never painted anything strange?' Nate sought clarification, though with disappointment because he had hoped to find something useful.

'Painted? No.' Jodie reached under the papers and placed a sheet of writing paper on the top of the pile, which showed words clearly written by a young child's hand. 'He didn't usually write anything notable either, but this I kept. It's...well, see for yourself.'

Nate lowered his gaze to the slightly crumpled piece of paper and read portions of it aloud, trailing his finger over each word on the page.

'I wish I knew how a lost dog knows how to find his way back home.' He said. 'I wish I could see the ocean because it's so big and something that big must be freeing. I wish he would come home so I could ask the questions I'm not allowed to.' Nate looked at Jodie and glanced back at the paper. 'What was the topic of the assignment?'

'The children were supposed to write about who they are.' Jodie said seriously. 'And who they wanted to be.'

'Did Daniel ever tell you what he wanted to be?'

'No.' Jodie said. 'I asked him, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer.'

'Mrs Larson, did you notice anything strange over the years?' Nate leaned forward over the table. 'Anything that might seem a little odd, or didn't make sense?'

'Daniel is a moody, though bright boy.' Jodie repeated. 'He's tried to make friends, and sometimes he said odd things, but there was never anything...' She paused in recollection, and looked away.

A crease in her expression indicated an unsettling realisation, causing worry to plainly spread across her features.

'What is it?' Nate pressed.

She didn't answer right away and her gaze trailed to a book on a shelf in the living room. Jodie got up and approached it, sorting through the pages as she returned to the table. Nate stood and looked at the indicated sections she indicated to.

He realised the pattern while she explained it.

'Daniel never had his photo taken.' Jodie said. 'Every year, when we have school pictures, his parents explain his absence with an elaborate reason. He's so sick he had to go to hospital, or a relative died and they were attending a funeral. We made Christmas decorations last year with a picture of the child on an ornament, but Daniel covered his face and protested the entire time. We couldn't take a single proper photo of him. I didn't think much of it at the time. It was strange, that in all those years, no one at the school was able to take a picture of his face. As a result, he was never in the school magazines or annual class photos.'

Nate remembered something about Nell and Eric not being able to find a picture of Daniel prior to when he was five years old, and wondered if the parents were protecting the boy so profoundly that they didn't want anyone to be able to identify him - even from class photos.

'Thank you, Mrs Larson.' Nate nodded. 'Do you mind if I keep this?' He indicated to the written assignment.

'Sure.' Jodie nodded willingly. 'Anything to help. Let me know if you have any more questions. I mean that.'

'I know. And I will.' Nate promised.

He collected his suitcase from near the door and headed out of the house. He stepped on the grass and released a long exhale when he spotted Kensi's car parked on the side of the road. Nate noticed her contemplative demeanour and knew his psychiatry duties for the day were far from over.

~ LB ~

The bullpen was quiet.

Everyone were up in the Ops centre, either looking into possible leads once again or going over the footage and files on the main screen. Kensi had taken Nate to the Ellis house so he could get a better idea of the family, and of Daniel, while Deeks remained at his desk. He sat there, staring down at the pictures laid out in front of him. Deeks picked up the one of the teddy bear, which had been abandoned on the grass more carefully than the car itself had been, and he wondered once again what its importance was. As a LAPD Detective, he'd come across stuffed toys that had served many purposes – such as being a convenient item for bad guys to hide drugs inside, or a safety net for a scared child to cling to. Deeks knew this particular bear was left behind to send a message, though they were yet to figure out what the message might be.

He was glad he'd left the Ops room an hour ago, because he could still hear the distantly raised tones of Sam and Callen bickering about yet another string of theories and possibilities.

Staring at the photo wasn't giving him any answers, so Deeks continued to peruse the other pictures taken from their limited footage of the kidnapping. He wondered, if they'd intended to kidnap Lieutenant Ellis, why they would shoot at him. It was a logical assumption that holding a gun to his wife would have been more effective in forcing him to go with them.

Deeks knew Callen was right in saying they didn't have the whole picture yet.

There were pieces, and clues, but the overall event remained unclear. The pentagon confirmed things were still secure, so either Ellis hadn't given in to any torture or threats yet, or the highly valuable information wasn't the primary goal. His blue gaze returning to the photo of the teddy bear, Deeks suspected it might not be entirely about the parents. Could Daniel be in the middle of all of it? Was whatever had happened more about the boy than his parents? They protected the child to the point of not allowing there to be a visual identification of him in any school pictures or community magazines. They never let him to take the bus to or from school even though they didn't live too far away, and only ever had someone babysit him if it was completely unavoidable.

Was Daniel their biggest clue of all?

With the worrying plausibility in mind, Deeks thought back to the previous night. The image of entering the bathroom to see the cold, upset boy sitting in the bathtub was still haunting him. Daniel had finally broken through his shock, and Deeks had wished there was more he could do for the child. His blonde hair and blue eyes did reflect himself in ways Deeks hadn't thought possible when he'd first met the eight-year-old. Kensi was right: there were similarities between himself and Daniel, even if there was no actual relation between them. When Daniel had gripped his hand with his own, Deeks had felt the child's emotions of fear, loneliness, and confusion.

His mind kept replaying the short incident where Daniel had reached out to him, even in the smallest of ways.

'Deeks?'

He was mildly startled from his serious pondering when he heard Kensi's voice. Deeks glanced at the time and sighed, knowing he had to take a step back from the case - it was time to pick Daniel up from school.

'Did Nate find anything?' Deeks asked as he got into her car and reached for his seatbelt.

'Yeah, sort of.' Kensi replied while keeping her gaze trained on the road ahead, avoiding looking in his direction for more reasons than general road safety. 'Do we have any leads? Tell me we have something by now.'

Deeks didn't answer, and remained silent while she parked the car.

He got out and looked towards the school – the home bell had already rung, so kids were running from the building and making a lot of noise. The pair kept an eye on the area, as usual, while crossing the road and then heading into the building. The third grade teacher, Andrea Reynolds, expected their repeated company in the afternoons, so she barely looked at Kensi or Deeks when they the classroom.

'Daniel?' Kensi spoke to the child.

He was sitting at his desk similarly to the previous day when they'd first met him. He seemed as defeated and unsure as the day before, until he looked up to face both of them with his bright blue eyes.

'You came back.' The boy whispered.

Daniel jumped up from his seat and rushed across the room to gather his schoolbag from its assigned hook on the wall near the doorway. He returned to their side and stood between the pair, looking up at Deeks and then to Kensi. His forced smile showed he was willing to go with them this time. His eyes looked haunted and scared, but his confidence to overcome it began to shine through.

Kensi exhaled with relief, whereas Deeks' reaction went beyond hers. In light of the new possibilities of the boy being a bigger focus in the case than they'd initially realised, Deeks saw the boy in a different light than he had before. And the incident in the bathroom was still replaying through his mind. Deeks decided to take a chance, and offered his hand to the child so he could be led back to the car, which was what Kensi had tried to do yesterday. Daniel stared at his hand for almost a full minute, before he slowly raised his own and gripped Deeks' lightly. He was uncertain, but Daniel's readiness to build trust was a very big turnaround from that morning when he'd tried to hide away from everything.

He was moving forward, though slowly, and Daniel's strength inspired Deeks to make sure it wasn't in vain.

* * *

'It was handmade.' Nell stated with a frown.

She hung up the phone and turned around to look at Callen, who stood nearby with an intense expression.

'The bear.' Nell continued. 'It was handmade, and probably at least sixty years ago. But it was in excellent condition - someone must have kept it in protected storage for a long time.'

'And the mystery deepens.' Callen sighed. 'Someone left that bear to be found. And someone has to know it's significance.'

'Maybe Daniel?' Nell offered. 'It is a child's toy.'

'Maybe.' Callen uttered, looking down at the papers in front of him.

'Yo?' Eric answered his phone when it rung, pausing his data search for the frozen food truck. 'Uh, okay.' He tapped at his keyboard, bringing up the surveillance cameras from the safe cover house and fixed it onto the back yard.

'Problem?' Callen asked alertly.

'No.' Eric answered. 'Kensi called. She said Daniel wanted to go outside the moment they got home, uh, I mean - to the house. She mentioned that he needed space, but wanted us to keep a closer eye on him.' He said, pinpointing the area of the yard where Daniel lay on his stomach on the grass. Monty was sprawled out on his back beside the boy, though the eight-year-old gave the dog no attention.

Callen and Nell, who were soon joined by Nate, approached the main screen to watch what the child was doing. He just lay there for a while, then grabbed the school bag he'd dropped nearby and searched through it. Pulling out a book, he flipped it to the back and let several photographs slip onto the grass in front of him. Sitting upright, Daniel slowly went through each picture, speaking to himself in undertones.

'What's he doing?' Callen wondered.

'Reciting.' Nate realised. 'Can you get a freeze frame of each picture?' He asked Eric urgently.

'Yeah.' Eric nodded with a _"duh"_ tone, and went about the task while the others continued to watch the live feed on the screen.

He used a different camera in the back yard to get the shots, as the main one the group were using wasn't properly angled for examining the pictures.

'There's seven.' Eric reported, bringing one up at a time to border the main feed. 'His parents when they were married, them with Daniel as a baby...their house, Ayira the babysitter, his dad in uniform, his mum in uniform, and-'

He stopped suddenly, and his eyes widened.

'What?' Callen turned to him quickly. 'What's the last picture of, Eric?'

'Oh, my god.' Eric murmured, and clicked the button to bring it onto the screen.

Everyone stared at it and knew they now had a lead for finding out how Daniel might be more related to the kidnapping of his parents than they had anticipated at the beginning of the case.

'The bear.' Nate whispered.

There was a photograph of Daniel as a toddler, sitting on the knee of an older woman. Both smiled at the camera, but clutched in the arms of the small boy was the exact teddy bear that had been found at the scene where the blue car had been abandoned.

While Nate attached his sole concentration on the image, Callen didn't hesitate in getting out his phone. He flipped it open and called Kensi, who answered the call on the second ring.

'Yeah?' Kensi sounded a bit agitated, though Deeks' poorly-controlled laughter was heard in the background.

'Daniel has a picture of himself sitting on the lap of an unknown woman. She might be a family member or someone close to the family. Find out who she is.' Callen reported firmly. 'He had the bear with him in the photo.'

'Okay.' Kensi nodded and hung up.

She stared at her phone for a moment, then her gaze gravitated to the living room where Deeks animately told Daniel about surfing while the boy listened with rapt attention. Though it made her smile, Kensi didn't think it felt right to interrupt the moment between the pair. Callen's request in mind, she paused to plan a potential method of bringing up the topic relating to the bear and unknown woman.

'I'm hungry.' Daniel stated when Deeks stopped talking. The boy was still used to his former schedule, in which he often ate his dinner earlier than he did under the care of Kensi and Deeks.

'Uh, right.' Kensi winced. 'We're working on it.'

'Working on it?' Deeks repeated, raising his eyebrow. 'You can't cook.'

'Well, we can't order take-away every night.' Kensi argued, while Daniel pat Monty over by the sofa. 'He needs a home-cooked meal, Deeks. You know more than me, so you think of something.'

'Me?' Deeks scoffed, moving to join her in the kitchen. 'I took a few classes. I barely know a cucumber from a zucchini.'

'You're the mum.' Daniel spoke to Kensi. 'Aren't you supposed to know that stuff?'

His innocent query halted their conversation, causing both of the adults to look over at the boy with uncomfortable surprise. Kensi had to gather herself before answering, and quickly averted her gaze.

'Uh, no.' Kensi said, brushing some hair behind her ear while Deeks watched her carefully. 'I mean, I'm not a mum. Maybe, one day, when I do become a mother - then I will know how to cook. For now, I'm still learning.'

'Can you cook?' Deeks joked to Daniel.

'No.' The boy shook his head and stood. 'Maybe we can find a book to tell us how? We can make something together. None of us know how to cook, so if we all work together maybe we can do it?'

'Sounds like a plan.' Kensi commented, impressed by the boy's suggestion, and began to search for a cookbook. Finding one, and flipping through it to ensure it wasn't too hard, she dropped it open on the counter and scoured the pages with dread and doubt.

'We need something simple.' Kensi sighed, acutely aware of Deeks leaning over her shoulder to peer at the book.

Daniel grunted in effort to see properly over the counter so he could try to help pick something, but it was higher than most kitchen surfaces generally were. Deeks, seeing the boy's failed efforts, went over and lifted Daniel around the middle. He'd pulled a stool around the counter towards them and placed the child atop it.

Kensi discreetly glanced at the action and hid a smile, then moved the book over so Daniel could look through the recipes.

'How about that one?' The boy pointed.

'I'm sure we can manage to chop some vegetables, and cook a few pieces of chicken.' Deeks shrugged.

'Heh, yeah.' Kensi snorted with a lack of confidence, then exhaled in anticipation of giving it a try anyway. 'Alright. Let's give it a shot.' She nodded, offering the book to Daniel. 'You can tell us what we need.'

'Pumpkin.' Daniel called out.

He thought the scene was very entertaining, as he watched the pair search through the fridge, and got in each others way, to locate each ingredient.

'Carrots. Broccoli...'

~ LB ~

The preparation took longer than they'd expected, but the trio were determined to have a home-cooked meal. Kensi made sure Daniel wouldn't be handling anything too dangerous, then appointed the boy the task of peeling vegetables. She assigned Deeks the chicken - convinced as she was that his few lessons gave him an advantage over her apparent lack of ability to even boil water without something going wrong.

Deeks put a lot of effort into hiding his winces from the others while he cooked, or tried to. He was frequently distracted with keeping an eye on Daniel, and wondering what was on Kensi's mind. She was clearly contemplating something and also kept a close watch over Daniel, though Deeks could tell it was for more reasons than ensuring the boy didn't slice his finger while cutting some of the vegetables.

They didn't speak much, though Daniel often asked about surfing in between the bickering matches between the adults, which occurred many times – such as when Kensi thought Deeks had the heat too high and was going to burn the house down, or he lectured that she was drowning the vegetables to the point a professional diver couldn't save them.

When they each sat reluctantly at the table to dinner, no one was particularly enthusiastic about eating their home-cooked meal.

'At least we tried.' Kensi huffed, aggressively poking the darkened lumps of vegetables and chicken with her fork.

'Maybe it's not too bad.' Deeks made feeble efforts to be optimistic.

He reached for his cutlery, and stabbed a small piece of chicken while the other two warily watched his actions. Slowly, Deeks put it into his mouth and chewed. Kensi stared at him with bated breath, while Daniel gripped his own fork tightly in anticipation.

'Okay.' Deeks pulled a sour face and gulped down the chewier-than-it-should-be piece of chicken. 'That's not what chicken is supposed to taste like.'

'Can I have leftover pizza?' Daniel asked, pushing away his plate.

'Yeah.' Kensi sighed with a furious sulk, annoyed that they hadn't been able to cook a decent meal even with their combined efforts. She pushed away her own plate, though Deeks dared to try the vegetables next in case they were edible.

The gagging sounds he made weren't very promising.

'What do you think, Monty?' Deeks bent to coach his dog into eating a piece of chicken.

Monty sniffed it and whined, then ran away from the table to curl up on the sofa.

Sighing with undeniable defeat, Deeks got up to clear the table and scraped their failed meal into the trash. He accepted a piece of re-heated pizza, offered to him by Kensi, and tuned in to the conversation taking place in front of him by the kitchen counter.

'Does anyone in your family like to cook?' Kensi made her question sound as casual as she could, hoping to ease the boy into the subject, rather than ask him outright.

Daniel avoided looking in her direction as he ate his pizza, and shrugged his shoulders in response.

'My grandmother loved to cook.' Deeks shared. He easily caught onto what Kensi was trying to accomplish in terms of topic flow and played along. 'Do you have any grandparents, Daniel? A great aunt or uncle, maybe?'

The boy didn't answer.

He walked to the sofa and sat down, ignoring the unfaltering interest Monty had for his food. The boy stared at the floor in evasion of talking about his family in any manner. They didn't pressure him, though both Kensi and Deeks wondered if it was because the child missed his parents or not. They knew it was a factor, but the serious expression passing over the eight-year-old's face said otherwise.

'Well, it's time for your bath.' Kensi sighed, acting as though the temporarily discarded subject had been no big deal.

She headed up the stairs to get the bath water ready, while Deeks convinced the boy to follow. Daniel slouched his shoulders with disappointment, wishing he'd asked Deeks more about the big waves of the ocean when he'd had the chance, but got up from the sofa and tossed the crust of his pizza to Monty. Deeks lingered near the kitchen counter, knowing Kensi would rejoin him shortly. She did, but remained quiet, as she considered Callen's insisting to finding out who the woman in the picture could be and the supposed connection the bear had to whoever she was.

It meant they'd have to try to get Daniel to speak about his family again, despite the fact he clearly did not want to.

'Do you think it's wrong to get too close?' Kensi asked in a borderline-emotional tone, keeping her gaze averted away from Deeks. 'We're going to leave him one day too. I don't want Daniel to get attached. It doesn't seem fair.'

'I don't think it'll matter once he gets his parents back.' Deeks shrugged. 'He needs to trust us, or this is going to be harder for all of us.'

'I know.' Kensi sighed, looking across the living room. 'I talked to Nate. He thinks we should really bond with Daniel. He said, Daniel needs to know someone is here for him – that someone cares.'

'He's the expert, right?' Deeks pointed out.

He had no idea what the right move was in a situation like the one they were in, yet he did see the reasoning behind the advice Nate had given Kensi earlier.

'In the long run, Daniel will look back on this and know he wasn't alone in his time of need.' Kensi added, quoting Nate. 'You saw him this morning - not wanting to go to school. How do we bond with him when he's still dealing with everything else that's going on? It's gotta be a lot for an eight-year-old to handle.'

'I don't know. Kids are tough.' Deeks answered. 'By being there, I guess, we let him know he's not alone.'

'And when that's not enough?' Kensi turned to face Deeks.

Deeks didn't answer, as he heard movement upstairs. They paused to listen, wondering what Daniel was doing, yet received no indication of something being wrong. A few minutes later, the boy came back downstairs dressed in his pyjamas and halted to look at them. He wondered what was going on, seeing their firm expressions, and headed over to Monty instead.

'Daniel?' Kensi took a risk and stepped forward to cross the room.

She waited for the boy to acknowledge her, then sat on the soda beside the boy with comfortable space between them.

'I need to ask you something, okay?' Kensi told him. 'It's important.'

'Okay.' Daniel said hesitantly.

'Other than your mum and dad, do you have any other family?' Kensi wondered. 'Anyone at all?'

'One.' Daniel looked downwards.

'Do you have any pictures of them or people close to your family?' Kensi continued when he didn't say anything else about the person.

'Will it help?' Daniel looked up, his eyes questioning more than his words.

'Yes.' Kensi nodded. 'I promise, anything you can tell or show us will help.'

With a drawn-out sigh, Daniel reached to the floor for his previously forsaken school-bag and extracted the photographs the others knew had been concealed there. He offered Kensi the seven pictures Eric had screen-captured from the surveillance footage, keeping his blue eyes aimed elsewhere.

She thanked him and sorted through them slowly enough to give the illusion of a person seeing them for the first time, complete with the occasional comment or two. In truth, she hadn't seen all of them before, only a few. When she saw the final one with the elderly lady holding toddler Daniel on her lap, who was gripping that all-important bear, Kensi held it up to the child. Deeks had joined them and was staring at the picture as well, equally eager to obtain more information about their only promising lead so far in a critical case.

'Who is this?' Kensi gently asked the boy.

Daniel lifted his gaze to the picture, then frowned deeply as though its appearance alone stirred strong emotions inside him.

'Grandma May.' He reluctantly replied.

'When was the last time you saw her?' Kensi continued to kindly press for details.

'I don't remember.' Daniel looked away. 'She's a stranger to me.'

'Okay.' Kensi nodded, not wanting to push the boy too hard. 'And is this your bear?'

'No.' Daniel said without hesitation and tightly clenched his fists at the material of his pants. 'It's not mine. I'm not allowed to touch it.'

Kensi looked at the picture again, thinking the two people in it looked happy and the boy was holding the bear, but decided not to question his contradicting words.

'Why?' Daniel suddenly asked. 'Why do you want to know?'

Kensi glanced at Deeks, then sighed, thinking she may as well say something. Even so, she took a moment to choose her words attentively and didn't want to upset the boy further.

'When we found your dad's car, the bear was there too. It looked important.' She said briefly.

Kensi went to say something else, except Daniel had jumped up and hastily claimed he wanted to go to bed. Storming by her, the eight-year-old almost ran to the stairs - a moment later, they heard the bedroom door slam shut.

'How can one stuffed toy cause so much trouble?' Deeks shook his head, accepting the photo from Kensi to have a better look at it while she called Callen.

Both jumped when they heard a resounding crash from upstairs. Kensi ended her call and hurried after Deeks to discover what was going on in Daniel's room. They burst inside, and saw the boy overturning everything around him that he could lift.

'Whoa!' Deeks exclaimed, watching in alarm as Daniel clawed at the sheets to destructively remove them from the bed.

'Daniel!' Kensi scolded, though in shock, and wondered if she should grab the boy to prevent him from tearing apart the room.

Daniel screamed in anger, giving the impression he had no awareness of their presence.

He lunged forward and pushed books off his bedside table, which almost sent his lamp hazardously onto the floor where it would have broken on impact. He still had a bag of a few unpacked items near his bed, which the boy dove through to noisily toss clothes at the walls. Toys and books went flying after the clothes, and anything else he had in his bag until Daniel ran out of things to grab.

He was about to yank off the draws from his dresser when Deeks leaped forward to seize the child around the middle.

'Hey! Hey, calm down.' Kensi tried to soothe him.

The boy was too enraged to heed her words, with tears streaking down his face while he growled and squirmed. He yelled again and swung his fists so violently that Deeks had to be very careful to prevent getting hit in the face.

'Daniel!' Kensi stood a safe distance in front of the boy, using a much firmer tone than before. She'd raised her voice to be overheard when the boy continued to scream, which would surely panic the neighbours if they didn't calm him down soon.

'Hey!' Deeks' sharp voice in Daniel's hear shocked the boy into silence.

Checking the child had genuinely stilled, Deeks put him on the bed and crouched in front of the boy. Kensi was a bit annoyed, though very concerned and a bit at loss of what to do, but one look at Deeks' face made her realise he wasn't either of those things. There was a sense of familiarity in his face as he stared back at the boy, keeping a grip on the child's forearms to stop Daniel from hitting anything else.

'What's going on?' Deeks asked. 'Talk to us, Daniel.'

'NO!' Daniel shouted. 'They left me.' His anger collapsed into raw sadness and overwhelming abandonment. 'They left me!'

The child resolved to sobs and flung himself at Deeks. The child wrapped his arms around the Detective's neck, his smaller form shaking with hurt and the inability to fully vent it.

'You're not alone, buddy.' Deeks recovered from his shock and lifted the boy into his arms, moving to sit on the bed while Daniel cried wholeheartedly against his shoulder. He rubbed the boy's back and looked over at Kensi with a complexly-defined expression.

'I think we need back-up.' Kensi exhaled, placing her hands on her hips.

She could see the impact Daniel was having on Deeks, and yet she was determined to remain strong and collected despite the turmoil she too felt bearing witness to the child's suffering.

'What, you think we can't handle one eight-year-old?' Deeks rolled his eyes.

'Not that kind of back-up.' Kensi answered, getting out her phone.

'Nate?' Deeks realised.

'Nate.' Kensi confirmed, though she stared at her phone and hesitated.

At that moment, it wasn't the right time to make that call. Instead, she moved to sit closely beside Deeks and placed her hand on Daniel's shoulder with a tender touch.

'Daniel?' Kensi whispered softly to the boy.

His sobs ceased as he strained to listen to her words without lifting his face from Deeks' shoulder. 'We're going to find them and bring them back. That's a promise. Until then, you have us.'

Kensi brushed her hand over his blonde hair, doing everything she could think of to try and help him through his pain.

'Everything's going to be okay.' Kensi reassured the child.

Daniel remained quiet, apart from the occasional sniffle. His arms were still securely wrapped around Deeks for emotional safety and support, but Kensi knew he'd heard her very clearly. She intended to keep her promise, no matter what it took, to make sure no one hurt the young boy again. Daniel might not be as closely bonded to her as he was with Deeks, yet Kensi was the one who was already prepared to do anything that was necessary to bring the Ellis family back together again.

~ LB ~

'Who is she?' Callen demanded to know.

He stood in the Ops room, awaiting the information and answers they needed in regards to the maker of the teddy bear. Kensi had been on the phone long enough to give them a name, and Callen was getting irritated that it was taking so long to find out who she was, if only because they had been tiresomely looking for something to go on in their case and constantly came up with dead ends.

'I'm working on it.' Nell reminded him, though was only mildly bothered by his own agitation.

She risked a glance at Eric and saw the way he stared at his computer screen in contempt, likely because his efforts to locate the frozen food truck was coming up dry. She knew her task wasn't as difficult as Eric's, yet Callen was right in thinking it was still taking longer than it perhaps should for her to locate one relative.

'Got it!' Nell exhaled with accomplishment, while shaking her head in annoyance for not finding the data sooner. Grabbing her hand-held device, she turned to face the main screen where the picture they'd taken earlier (of the photo Daniel had been looking at) appeared.

'Nothing.' Sam grumbled venomously as he stalked into the room.

He'd been talking to neighbours of the Ellis family for most of the afternoon, along with many people who had worked with either of the parents. He adamantly disliked the lack of use it all felt to have in regards to locating the missing Lieutenant and his wife.

'Who's she?' Sam nodded towards the screen when a different picture of the woman replaced the other one. The overlapped image looked to be dated at least twenty years earlier, taken from a nurse ID tag.

'Nell was about to tell us.' Callen stated, giving her a pointed look.

'May Ellis.' Nell told them without further delay. 'She's Lieutenant Michael Ellis' mother.'

'Daniel's grandmother.' Nate stated, stepping out of the shadows where he'd been reading over a thick file regarding all the NCIS cases Lieutenant Ellis had been semi-involved with in the past.

'Yeah.' Nell nodded. 'According to this, May Ellis has not been in contact with her only living relatives since they moved to Los Angeles four years ago. Not that we can find, anyway. She lives alone, with no record of ever being married.'

'Where is she now?' Callen wanted to know.

'Florida.'

'Get her here.' Callen instructed. 'That bear is all we have right now, and she made it.'

'Hm.' Nate made a noise as he checked his phone. 'Kensi texted me. She said, Daniel doesn't remember his grandmother and supposedly wasn't allowed to touch the bear. Then he shut himself in his room before unleashing a destructive tantrum. They had to grab him to calm him down.'

'Because of the bear?' Callen asked, confused about what could have dramatically set the boy off.

'Maybe.' Nate frowned, thinking for a moment, before he continued. 'Everyone who knows Daniel says he's kind and a bright boy, yet he's also demonstrated a consistent level of moodiness. There is nothing to suggest he grew up in anything less of a loving home...'

'Do you think otherwise?' Sam asked.

'No.' Nate shook his head. 'But something has given the boy a reason to be on edge, and he's prone to tantrums whenever his family is involved.'

He looked at the screen, which still showed the younger picture of May Ellis.

'His grandmother may hold the answers we're looking for.'

'All the more reason to talk to her.' Callen nodded. 'Nell?'

'I'm working on it.' She confirmed. 'She should be here by tomorrow. I'll have someone pick her up at the airport and take her to the boathouse.'

'Good.' Callen exhaled, glad to be making actual progress. 'Eric, any luck on the truck?'

'No.' Eric grumbled. 'The company doesn't exist, and there were no plates on the footage we'd found. I'm still trying with kaleidoscope, but it's not looking good.'

'Keep at it.' Callen encouraged. 'Why do you think they moved to Los Angeles?' He turned around to face Sam.

'Who knows?' Sam shrugged. 'It could be for any number of reasons.'

'Well, whatever their reason, it's around the time Daniel stopped getting his picture taken.' Callen pointed out. 'Where did they live before?' He checked with Nell.

'Florida.' Nell answered. 'Half a block away from May Ellis' family home.'

'It's a long way to go.' Callen thought aloud. 'Something must have happened, to cut off all contact with her. She might know something we don't, something that's one of the missing pieces of the puzzle.'

'The puzzle?' Sam raised an eyebrow. 'That's what we're calling it now?'

'Hetty's words, not mine.' Callen stated.

'It really is a puzzle.' Nell sighed. 'We have a missing Lieutenant with access to top-security information, a teddy bear left at the scene – which apparently belonged to a grandmother no one in the family has had any contact with in years, a truck blocking the event though the company doesn't exist, and the eight-year-old boy left behind in it all.'

'Putting all that together just leads to a whole lot of confusion.' Sam nodded. 'We're missing a lot of pieces - not just a few names or places. There's this whole other side we haven't uncovered yet.'

'A case like this, and no leads?' Callen questioned. 'Something big could be going down right now and we have no clue where, why, or who. We have nothing to go on.'

'That's not entirely true.' Nate stepped forward. 'Daniel wasn't kidnapped, nor were there any apparent threats to his safety. Either the kidnappers are so confident they could get what they want without him, or they have no reason to hurt him. The inability to harm a child could demonstration of the minimal compassion stemming from mankind's ancient instincts to protect our young, or whoever is involved is deliberately keeping Daniel out of harm's way to the point of excluding him entirely.'

'The parents?' Callen guessed.

'It's possible.' Nate allowed. 'But unlikely. They also could have made a deal to keep their son safe. They have put a lot of time and stress into protecting the boy over the years, to the point of not letting anyone take pictures of him. They could very well have known this might happen, and prepared for it accordingly.'

'You think they moved across the country to escape whoever was coming after them?' Callen suggested.

'It makes sense.' Sam added.

'It's very likely.' Nate nodded. 'And they knew NCIS would protect Daniel if they went missing. Any message they leave behind is meant for us. They probably knew we'd realise the bear was important and ask Daniel about it. Whoever left that bear wants us to find May Ellis, and I firmly believe she can fill in a few gaps.'

'I hope so.' Callen stated. 'It's about time we had some answers.'

'And yet, Daniel's tantrum right after hearing the bear is involved also tells a story of its own. Kensi filled me in – he completely lost it.' Nate continued and shook his head. 'He was angry, and saying his parents had left him. The bear solidified their absence to the point that the eight-year-old boy lashed out with extreme levels of anger and hurt. He too might have been prepared for something like this to happen. Daniel might also know more than he's saying.'

'It's not like he's just going to tell us.' Sam pointed out.

'That's why it's crucial for him to bond with Kensi and Deeks. He needs someone to let him know he's not alone - that there are people he can trust to help him through this.' Nate added seriously. 'I don't know if it's related to the case or not, but something in that boy's life isn't right. He's holding onto a secret that is breaking him down inside. Tonight, he snapped.'

'Do you think Kensi or Deeks can get through to him?' Sam requested Nate's opinion.

'He's already opening up to Deeks.' Nate replied. 'He's reaching out to him and possibly sees a bit of himself in the Detective. I think they both do. Having said that, I don't think Deeks will be the one he'll tell his secret to. I might be wrong, but for a boy so many claim is friendly and wants to make friends, Daniel repels Kensi for more reasons than just her forcing him to confront the reality in front of him.' Nate said confidently.

'I don't see how any of that is going help our case.' Callen said. 'Shouldn't it be about finding the boy's parents, and bringing them home to him?'

'Daniel is the one pictured with the bear left at the scene.' Nate reminded them. 'Daniel Ellis was left behind for a reason. When we find that reason, we can make sense of what happened to his parents.'

'Then we really need to talk to May Ellis.' Callen sighed. 'She may hold the key to finding answers, and solving the puzzle of what the hell is going on.'

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Thank you to every single person who is reading this story. I hope you liked this chapter. Starting next chapter, now a lot of the essentials have been set in place, there will be an increase in Densi-ness as well as certain other aspects I'm looking forward to writing. This story won't be a short one, so feel free to make requests. Any feedback you have to offer is a tremendous help and inspiration to me, especially after a huge chapter like this one, so please take a moment to review.


	4. Saviour

**Author's****Notes: **Thanks again to my reviewers and readers! I had hoped to get this up yesterday, being the awesome day of new NCIS + NCIS:LA episodes, but I was too exhausted to polish the chapter for the update in time due to its added length, until today. Enjoy!

**Note that this chapter contains major spoilers for the Season 1 episode "Found".**

* * *

**~ Saviour ~**

Kensi could hardly move.

She stared downwards, seeing the bright red blood smeared over the surface of her palm, and tried not let the events replay in her mind. The blood wasn't hers, yet Kensi felt the pain as though it was. Her entire form shuddered from shock, even as she used every ounce of her strength not to cry. She knew Deeks would be feeling worse than she was – much worse, and he will need her perseverance.

Kensi stood alone on the grass outside the cover house, slowly looking up and over to the pooling of blood on the road. She'd had her weapon taken from her, yet Kensi wasn't going to let anything hinder her from seeking out the one responsible for the mess and heartache of what had happened.

'I'm so sorry.' A shorter woman with curly brown hair approached her, pushing her glasses higher on her nose as she looked at Kensi with sympathy. The woman raised her hand to place it on Kensi's shoulder, trying to offer any comfort she could, but her touch was immediately shrugged off.

'Don't.' Kensi uttered furiously, her voice breaking slightly as she spoke. 'I can't. It's my fault.'

'No, it's not.' Her company tried to assure her.

'Is Cole okay?' Kensi re-directed, mostly as an afterthought.

'He's on the way to the hospital.' The woman told her with an exhale of relief. 'He'll be fine.'

The shock still overtaking her senses prevented Kensi from having something to answer with, so she remained quiet. She looked down at her hand again, wishing the blood no longer looked as fresh as it had when the events unfolded moments earlier. Redness was coloured on her formally blue blouse as well, and she intended to never wear that shirt again.

'It's my fault.' Kensi whispered. 'I couldn't stop it. Deeks will never forgive me.'

* * *

_~ Approximately 26 hours earlier ~_

* * *

'He was too quiet.' Kensi told Deeks, looking across the gym to where he stood a safe distance away.

Her hair was messily pulled back into a ponytail, whereas his hung around his face like it always did. They were both sweating, and breathing heavily, while maintaining the matched stubbornness in their determined gazes.

'It was a rough night.' Deeks commented with a shrug.

He flexed his neck and raised his fists in anticipation of another round against Kensi. It was still the earlier hours of Wednesday morning, and they both considered it too early to begin work; the two partners had to find an alternative use of their time.

'Right.' Kensi nodded, forcing herself not to needlessly worry. 'Right, he's probably still recovering.' She spoke loosely, yet secretly wondered if she was trying to convince Deeks or herself.

That morning had been unlike the one before it.

The pair had stood in the kitchen, just after sunrise, and looked over at the table where Daniel sat to eat his breakfast. Kensi had been the one to wake him, again, and the eight-year-old boy got out of bed without question or rejection. He'd dressed, and went downstairs for a bowl of cereal without uttering a single word. Deeks had tried to talk to Daniel, being as cheerful and friendly as possible, but the child merely offered Deeks a shy smile for his efforts then resumed his preparations for breakfast.

When he was finished eating, Daniel pushed away the barely-touched meal and asked if they could go – once again demonstrating a reversal of his previous attitude towards attending school. Kensi, unsure how to react, simply reached across the counter for the green lunch box she'd packed for him. Daniel willingly accepted it and moved to follow her outside to the awaiting SUV. Deeks trailed behind them, stopping only to lock the front door of their safe cover house along the way.

The child in their care was as silent during the drive to the school, never protesting or asking any questions. Daniel hadn't even looked at them when he got out of the car, and was accompanied part-way to the main building by Deeks.

The two partners thought it was odd, even though they were relieved to have performed their duties without a dramatic hassle. They didn't think much more of it, until one hour later inside the NCIS gym where they worked. Kensi and Deeks still had little to say or speculate on the occurrence, likely because they had more serious matters to consider - such as the ongoing case of the boy's missing parents. That didn't stop the event from crossing their minds, however, as they continued to spar with hand-to-hand combat despite their clear desire for a break.

'Ah!' Deeks yelled when Kensi flipped him onto the polished wooden floor of the gym.

He winced and groaned, as he felt the momentary pain shoot through him when he rolled onto his side. He was sore, and he knew Kensi was too because they were pushing their limitations. It wasn't excessively full-on, but the length of time they'd been competitively clashing was already taking its toll.

'Time out!' Deeks whined, lying sprawled out on his back with his arms and legs spread to mimic the shape of a star.

'There are no time outs.' Kensi gasped.

Regardless of her words, she moved to sit on the smooth floor beside him and released a long exhale of relief.

'Or you could just admit defeat, and it'll be over.' She added, pausing to sip from her water bottle.

'Never.' Deeks smirked through his grimace.

They had been relatively even for the most part, but his pride would not allow him to acknowledge that overall he had been thrown onto the floor more times than Kensi had. He was losing, and Deeks could feel it by the bruises and aches his body endured.

Feebly, in clear exaggeration of his supposed injuries, Deeks checked the time on his watch and huffed with annoyance. It felt like they'd been battling for hours, yet it was still considered a bit early to head to the bullpen. They'd felt guilty at first, for being in the gym when they could be working to find the missing parents of Daniel, but at the time they'd arrived there simply wasn't anything work-related to do. They had no major leads, and only a handful of people were in the building when they'd arrived.

As Deeks lay there, he thought of what he'd usually be doing at that time on a regular Wednesday morning. He was sure he'd either be going for a run or surfing the morning waves. Kensi had been for a run that morning before he'd gotten up, but Deeks missed his surfing even if they'd only been babysitting for a few days so far. Either way, he considered what he could be doing and compared it to his current alternative where he was instead lying defeated on the floor of the gym.

In a burst of exhaustion and amusement, Deeks started laughing at the incomprehensible contrasts between the two outcomes.

'Did you hit your head?' Kensi stared at him.

She was unnerved by Deeks' abrupt laughter from where he lay, wincing, on the floor a few feet from where she sat.

'Deeks, seriously, what is so funny?' She asked while trying to hide a smile; his wide grin was somewhat infectious.

'Nothing.' Deeks chuckled, then sat up. 'Okay, one more round.'

'Are you for real?' Kensi groaned, looking at him with disbelief.

She wasn't sure if she could survive another round, yet wasn't going to let Deeks know that. Kensi was eager to arise as the victor, and to never look weak in front of anyone. Her bullheadedness to stand by that was the only fuel she had left to raise from her space on the floor.

'Yeah.' Deeks grunted, slowly getting to his feet. 'Fair warning, I'm going to kick your ass.'

'That'll be the day.' Callen spoke from the doorway.

His unexpected voice carried through the gym and caught the attention of the two within, who each turned to see Callen and Sam standing there.

'And I thought we were early.' Callen added to his partner.

'We are early.' Sam frowned back. 'They just beat us here.'

'Well, they do look beaten.' Callen shrugged with amused agreement, though his gaze was mostly focused on Deeks.

Kensi lowered her fists when her phone emitted a ringing sound. Sighing, she got it out of her nearby bag and checked the caller ID. She didn't recognise it, though she cautiously answered it anyway.

'Damn.' Kensi said, referring to the interruption rather than the unknown identity of her caller. 'Hello?' She answered, lifting a finger to shush the others.

_'NCIS, Special Agent Kensi Blye?' _A sour-sounding woman spoke through the receiver.

'Uh, yeah.'

_'I'm Jenna Mills, the Vice Principal. We were instructed to contact you in the case of any issues regarding Daniel Ellis.'_ The woman said. _'The boy is in the sick bay, requesting to be taken home.'_

She then began to briefly explain the situation to Kensi, who listened with dread and reluctance.

When she hung up, Kensi faced Deeks again and raised her fists in preparation for another round. Deeks had an unfairly short amount of time to prepare himself for the onslaught of her punches, resulting in his preference to ducking rather than proper retaliation. The expression on her face was intimidating enough that even Callen and Sam took a step back.

It didn't take very long for her leg to swipe Deeks off his feet, and for him to find himself experiencing a familiar collision with the floor.

'We're benched again.' Kensi grumbled, bending to retrieve her water bottle and bag. 'We've got to go. Daniel's in the sick bay, and we've got to take him back to the house.'

Kensi wanted to help with the case, but knew they couldn't simply bring Daniel to their office of special projects or the boathouse. There wasn't any other option. She did want to protect Daniel and knew her task was important, yet Kensi was used to being amidst the action and putting in every skill or effort she had to take down the bad guys. She looked forward to dropping the boy at school because it meant she could head to work and help with the case of finding the child's parents, yet today that did not appear to be the plan.

'What happened?' Deeks wondered.

He gasped for air and grabbed Callen's offered hand, which pulled him to his feet. Deeks knew it was out of teasing pity that Callen had even helped him up, though he accepted the assistance nonetheless.

'I don't know.' Kensi answered with a shrug, heading for the door of the gym. 'I didn't ask.'

'You didn't ask?' Deeks repeated incredulously. 'The kid could be bleeding to death for all we know!'

'He's not bleeding to death.' Kensi rolled her eyes at his dramatic response, knowing the boy wasn't feeling too well and it wasn't bad enough to need a visit to the hospital.

Her words were the last Sam and Callen heard, as the two departing partners vanished from sight and hearing range. In the regained quiet of the otherwise empty gym, they stared at each other for a long moment without speaking – Sam's daring gaze matching Callen's. With a smirk, Callen shed his bag while Sam flexed his neck. They shared a _"why not?"_ shrug, and raised their own fists in deliberation of having a sparring match of their own.

There was no way those two were going to be out-done by Kensi and Deeks, plus there was still plenty of time for a few more rounds of partner versus partner.

~ LB ~

Daniel's eyes were closed.

He lay on his back, with the uncomfortable mattress underneath him, and tried not to think about the discomfort he felt. His hands rested over his stomach, which was where it hurt, and the icky-smelling room around him was quiet. Daniel didn't know what he was going to do now. He felt miserable and nauseous, but the boy believed he had no option other than to lay there on the sick bay bed and wish away his unhappiness.

When things like this developed, Daniel knew who the school nurse told the vice principal to call. Just like last year, when he'd gotten into a fight with Billy Kruger. Except, they wouldn't be coming to pick him up this time. They were missing, and possibly gone forever. It had been days since it happened, yet during all that time of shock and abandonment...it was when he lay in the sick bay room that Daniel truly felt alone.

He couldn't remember any other moment in his life when he'd felt so forsaken and discarded, without someone to be there for him.

His blue eyes blinked open when the boy heard sounds outside the partially closed door of the sick bay. Not willing to move, in case he felt dizzy again, Daniel listened as hard as he could to work out what the nurse was saying. He couldn't understand her speech, likely because of her heavy European accent and his currently ill state, but Daniel knew it wasn't the vice principal she was talking to.

When the door opened, Daniel did turn his head towards it in a momentary hope that they'd come back for him. When he saw Kensi enter the room, his disappointment flooded him for a moment and his heart sank again. Sighing, the child turned to face the once-white ceiling above where he lay, his emotions swarming with the neglect he hated.

'You okay, buddy?'

Hearing Deeks' voice was not met with the usual interest or attentiveness when Daniel, for the first time, entirely ignored him as well.

The boy was furious at first - angry that he had been so hopeful, and yet the bitterness quickly faded when his foggy mind reminded him he hadn't been forgotten. The school had called them two, his protectors, and the boy could not deny it was nice to know Kensi and Deeks had come for him. They hadn't left him there to suffer, alone in the icky-smelling sick bay, and for that Daniel decided he was actually very glad to see them.

'You have a stomach-ache?' Kensi asked him.

'Uh-huh.' Daniel nodded, biting back another wave of nausea.

He turned his head to the side to see her unsure face staring back at him. Deeks stood a little behind Kensi, with his face also reflecting his apparent concern. He wondered if this was new, for them to actually seem worried about him or sad that he wasn't feeling very well, or if perhaps he'd simply overlooked it before. Daniel vaguely heard them telling the nurse they would take him home, then privately corrected themselves that they were going to the safe cover house.

The boy didn't care either way what the house was called - as long as it wasn't the sick bay.

Daniel kept his blue gaze trained on the pair, wondering if he could leave right now and if his tummy was going to agree with the motions required to do so. The boy doubted he could just walk out of there, as it had been hard enough to drag himself to the nurse's station hardly an hour after arriving at school.

Deeks was talking to the nurse, and in Daniel's moment of desire for an escape from the horrible room and his own pain, he didn't weigh his options. He always gravitated towards Deeks, for so many reasons and yet only half of which Daniel was aware of. As his tummy continued to hurt, and Deeks was busy talking to the nurse, the boy reached his arms towards Kensi with tears in his eyes. Desperately, his eyes pleaded with her to get him away from the room and take him somewhere more comfortable and familiar.

Kensi didn't consider herself to be very good with kids, though she acknowledged it was more from a lack of experience and a personal need to be cautious, so it was quite a surprise to her when it wasn't Deeks that Daniel kept his attention on. She was stunned for a moment by the child's silent requested, and wasn't sure what to do, as she glanced at Deeks in hope he could carry the boy.

When Kensi looked back at Daniel, the tears in his eyes won her over as she simply could not deny the boy his desire to be held and to leave the room.

'I gotcha.' Kensi said, bending to lift the boy into her arms.

She shifted his weight even if the eight-year-old wasn't quite as heavy as she had expected. Things had been rocky between the two for days, and this was the first moment when they'd really taken a chance to bond. Up until that point, Daniel had been rather rejecting of her company in general – even while considering their teamwork during their efforts to cook a proper meal the night before.

When the child's hands gently curled around her neck to hang on, and his forehead pressed against her cheek, Kensi experienced a timeless moment of disorientation. She'd never really held a child before, and she had almost no experience with children in general - yet that moment was certainly significant. She felt her insecurities shed and the warmth of the otherwise pale, unwell child was more noticeable as she held in securely in her arms. There was something natural about the way she placed a hand under him to support the boy's weight, and another on his back to soothe him, though Kensi had no idea how she knew exactly the right thing to do.

The emotional occasion lasted only until Kensi realised Deeks was watching her. Unwilling to look weak or out of sorts Kensi insisted they should leave, and proceeded to carry the boy into the hallway outside the sick bay room.

Classes were in session, so the corridor was otherwise vacant and oddly quiet, making the it seem longer and larger than it typically was.

Deeks had a smile on his face, though he didn't comment or intervene on Kensi and Daniel's overdue moment of bonding. He trailed behind them, and was able to see Daniel's sleeping face because her hair was still tied up in a ponytail from their sparring earlier. When Kensi headed towards the black SUV, Deeks rushed ahead of her to open the door for her. Deeks watched patiently while she carefully sat Daniel inside the car, and did up his seat belt, which woke the boy from his brief slumber.

'What?' Kensi asked Deeks quietly, yet sharply, when they arrived at the safe cover house s short time later. She'd finally noticed his smile when she'd parked the car and turned to glance at him.

Her eyes were narrowed in a frown of annoyance, which only increased when he didn't answer.

Daniel had been restless during the drive, unable to close his eyes again or evade the discomfort of his aching tummy. As he sat in the back seat, Daniel busied himself with picturing cartoons he'd seen where a character turned green when they were sick, because that's what he thought he was doing right then. His nausea increased and he leaned his head back in desire to lie down to sleep, unaware the car was parked and the others had already vacated the front seats.

When the door opened beside him, the boy jumped and groaned at the ache the jerked action had caused him.

It was Kensi, again.

He reached for her as easily as he had at the school - lacking any objective thought. Daniel felt too sick to care about anything else. He wasn't aware of much, such as where he was or what was going on, just that he was being carried by Kensi. Daniel sighed with minimal relief, knowing someone had come for him when he needed help, and hugged to Kensi with appeased gratitude. The rubbing on his back seemed to help, until he was placed on the sofa and the contact was broken. Like oxygen being sucked from an air vent, the security and maternal warmth the boy had experienced was gone the moment he was no longer wrapped in her arms.

Kensi gathered a blanket and some pillows from the upstairs linen closet, while Deeks tried to prevent Monty from running to jump up at Daniel in elated greeting. Daniel sleepily gave the dog a smile, and stretched his hand to pat him. His eyelids felt heavy and Daniel knew he would be able to sleep now, which he really wanted to. Dropping his hand from the dog's coat, Daniel leaned back against the pillows and contentedly closed his eyes.

'We'll let him rest.' Kensi exhaled.

'He needs it.' Deeks agreed, sounding considerably calmer than her.

He rested his elbows on the back of the sofa to watch over the sleeping child, and glanced sideways at Kensi. Deeks hid a chuckle, knowing she was very inexperienced in these sort of situations, and could easily guess Kensi had no idea what she was supposed to do with a sick little boy in their care.

* * *

'I can assure you, Director, that every possible effort is being made to locate and rescue Lieutenant Ellis and his wife.' Hetty said, speaking on the phone to Leon Vance. 'Yes. I understand. As soon as I know, you will know.' She nodded with confidence and authority, then hung up with a grunt of displeasure.

Hetty released a long exhale of dread and minor helplessness as she leaned back in her chair to contemplate the need for another cup of tea. She looked across the space of the open-plan room to a lone figure seated on the couch near the bullpen. Hetty remembered seeing him pacing there earlier, back and forth, with the same complexly serious expression on his face.

Curious, and concerned as usual for those she cared about, Hetty rose from her seat and walked towards Nate.

'I'll figure it out.'

Nate tried to keep his frustration from being detected through his tone, even in acknowledgement that Hetty so often knew more than one could hide. He was very aware of her presence without having to look up, and therefore he's spoken before she'd had the chance to ask him what was going on in his psychologically active mind.

'Is there any news from Mr Deeks and Ms Blye?' Hetty distracted Nate from his thoughts long enough to get an update on the current situation. The brief pause in his line of considerations might be an unwelcome break to Nate, but it was a crucial intervention on Hetty's behalf.

'Deeks called. He believes Daniel is feeling ill because he was overwhelmed last night by the stress and extreme emotions that caused the boy to lash out.' Nate said, finding it interesting that Deeks reached that immediate assumption with a level of familiarity and sureness.

'Is Mr Deeks estimation correct?'

'It's not uncommon for a child to feel at unease, even to the point of nausea, because of exhaustion and stress. He's already improving and Deeks thinks he'll be fine by tomorrow.' Nate reported while barely paying much attention to what he was saying. 'Daniel also finally reached out to Kensi. I think she feels obligated to return the gesture by taking care of him - she believes he is seeking her help, and has dutifully responded in a mothering fashion. Kensi was on her fourth attempt of cooking soup to help him feel better.'

Hetty nodded, lowering her gaze as she too was deep in thought, yet was very interested in what Nate had to say. She also vaguely wondered why Deeks had called Nate instead of herself, or Callen.

'Deeks also mentioned that Daniel talks in his sleep. He said_ "valley"_ multiple times, and it seemed important. Callen and Sam are tracking down any possible meaning for the word – such as possible locations in the valley that may be linked to the family or close associates.'

'And May Ellis?' Hetty added.

'Her flight was delayed. It will take at least another full day for her to get to Los Angeles.' Nate grumbled, his focus fixated elsewhere.

He felt there was nothing else he had to tell Hetty regarding the case or anything potentially useful that he should mention to her. He'd overcome the momentary pause in his ongoing considerations, and yet the amount of determination and thought he'd put into it had not wavered.

'This doesn't make sense.'

'Then perhaps you need some fresh perspective, Mr Getz?' Hetty offered, moving to sit beside him. 'What isn't making sense to our highly trained psychologist who has proven to be quite the master of unravelling everyday riddles and mystiques?'

'Daniel.' Nathan shared.

He relaxed his posture, though his gaze remained pinpointed upon the piece of paper in front of him. Whenever someone needed to talk or vent, Nate was there for them. He was glad to help during every incidence in which he could be helpful, but there were moments when it was nice for a person like Hetty to plainly see there were times when Nate required the lend of a listening ear as well.

'You believe the boy is pertinent to the case?' Hetty tried to encourage more details from Nate, who had already helped them thus far with levelling confusions and rationalising possibilities.

'More than that.' Nate confirmed. 'He's the key to it. They all left him behind – the parents, the kidnappers...there has to be a reason for it.'

'There's a reason for everything, isn't there, Mr Getz?'

'I thought so.' Nate sighed, leaning back against the couch. 'I've been re-reading Daniel's school assignment. It's the only time his teacher noticed something out of place in his work. Apart from this, there were no strange paintings or odd behaviour beyond minor child antics and reasonably unexplainable moodiness.' He continued.

While Nate spoke, Hetty remained quiet to listen carefully to what he had to say - she knew when her words were needed and when to remain silent.

'Daniel said he wished he knew how a lost dog knows how to find his way back home.' Nate phrased, submerged in his thoughts even while he spoke aloud to his sole listener. 'As far as I can tell, he's never had a pet who was lost or involved in a situation where the boy could develop an association with what he'd said. He told Deeks he'd barely even seen a dog before. It's possible it was something he'd read in a storybook...'

'But you don't believe it was?' Hetty assumed.

'No.' Nate firmly shook his head. 'I don't think it was from a book or story. He also makes a lot of references to the ocean. Understandable, given his parent's history with the Navy and people they know who work in the Military. Yet Daniel says the ocean should be freeing and open because it's so big. Then, of course, the more notable words he'd written about wishing someone would come home so he could ask the questions he's not allowed to.'

'And what do you make of that?'

'Again, it could be related to his father. Lieutenant Ellis used to spent a lot of time on duty and away from home, plus his work is highly classified. But a child doesn't typically think of it like that - except Daniel Ellis did.' Nate frowned again. 'I don't know who "he" is, but it's probably the most revealing thing about himself that Daniel has ever written in his work. This assignment has very little to do with who he is or who he wants to be. It's a message. Daniel has been careful, and he chose this particular school assignment to tell us something.'

'But you don't know what that something is?' Hetty prodded.

'No. ' Nate huffed. 'I don't. It's a mystery - another piece of the puzzle. I don't know if it's going help us find his parents or not, but this _is_ important. I know Daniel is trying to tell us something, and I have to find out what it is.'

'In my experience, I've always found that when one is presented with a puzzle and no picture to demonstrate the end result, it's always wise to begin with the corner pieces to work around the edges of what you're trying to build.' Hetty said with a slight nod of her head. 'Once you know how big the puzzle is, and have framed a basic shape to work with, only then can you begin to fill in the blank spaces in the center. Only then will the picture become clear.'

Nate finally looked up from the paper to give her an awkward expression of realisation. He thought her words of veiled advice made perfect sense to him, and felt he should have thought of the evidentual metaphor sooner.

'Good luck, Mr Getz.' Hetty gave him a smile, preparing to return to her desk and leave him to his thoughts. 'If anyone can find those corner pieces, it will be you.'

'Yeah. Thanks.' Nate said, though he lacked his usual confidence and doubtlessness. Narrowing his eyes at the child's assignment once again, he tried to focus on the less obvious portions he'd already read over at least a dozen times.

~ LB ~

Shortly after lunch, the quiet arguing of Kensi and Deeks was the only sound in the safe cover house.

They stood together in the kitchen, whereas Daniel remained asleep on the sofa with only Monty for company. He wasn't allowed to sit with Daniel, no matter how much Monty wanted to stay close to the boy during what was clearly not a happy time for the small human. Monty whined and rested his chin on the edge of the sofa, keeping his gaze fixated on the face of the slumber child. He wanted to play with Daniel, or nudge him with his nose – anything to make the child laugh and be happy again.

The dog remained seated on the floor in front of Daniel, his head positioned on the sofa so he could continue staring longingly at the child, and took no notice of the hushed bickering come from the kitchen nearby.

'She came out of nowhere!' Deeks insisted, trying not to wake Daniel. 'I stepped outside for five minutes and the woman came swooping at me.'

'Swooping, Deeks?' Kensi rolled her eyes. 'This otherwise unremarkable, old lady who can barely see her own feet just_ "swooped"_ down on an apparently highly trained LAPD Detective?'

'I'm telling you, she's not normal. Or she's related to Hetty.' Deeks pouted. 'I didn't see her coming! The next thing I know, I'm accepting an invitation for us to join her for afternoon tea with some of the neighbours.'

'Did you forget Daniel is sick?' Kensi frowned. 'He can't go.'

'No, I didn't forget.' Deeks returned, offended by her words of implication. 'It was an accident! I don't even know what house she lives in. She just-'

'Swooped down on you.' Kensi rolled her eyes again. 'Yeah, I get it. How can we go when you don't even know what house it is?'

'Roses.' Deeks recalled, squinting as he tried to remember. 'She has a lot of roses.'

'They all have a lot of roses!' Kensi hissed.

'Nancy's going.' Deeks added. 'We can ask her where it is.'

'Oh, really? Nancy?' Kensi shook her head. 'You're unbelievable.'

'What?' Deeks asked with confusion when she turned to walk away. 'What? Kensi?' He complained and trailed after her.

'Daniel, how are you feeling?' Kensi questioned softly and crouched in front of the awakened child.

'Okay.' Daniel faintly, his voice sounding unused. 'Tired. Thirsty.'

'Deeks, get him a glass of water.' Kensi glared sharply at her partner, who huffed and went to the kitchen to do as he was told. 'Your temperature is fine.' She said with relief, refocusing on Daniel as she felt his forehead with her hand.

'My tummy isn't hurting anymore.' Daniel said, equally glad. He easily slid into sitting position to accept and drink the glass of water offered to him by Deeks.

Kensi was about to comment when the doorbell rang.

She and Deeks shared a look, and non-verbally she insisted to be the one to answer it while he stayed with Daniel. She hoped it wasn't Nancy stopping by, and was relieved to notice (through the blurred glass pane of the door) the person was considerably shorter than long-legged Nancy.

'Yes?' Kensi asked cautiously, though not entirely unfriendly, as she pulled the door ajar and peered through the gap to see who was visiting them.

'Hi, I'm Betsy. I live just over there.' The woman pointed towards the house one over from Nancy's.

She offered Kensi a somewhat shy smile, while brushing strands curly brown hair from her face.

'Oh.' Kensi said, unsure how to respond. She opened the door properly and straightened, losing some of her cautious edge, though she remained discreetly alert.

'I stopped by Leaha's, to drop off a dish, and I heard she'd invited the new neighbours to a little gathering this afternoon.' Betsy shared, adjusting the blue-rimmed glasses over her face. 'That could only be you, and your family. Leaha means well, I'm sure...'

Deeks watched Kensi talking with an unfamiliar neighbour, then looked down at the child comfortably seated on the sofa.

Daniel stared back at him, his blue eyes showing more depth and trust than they had earlier, and Deeks wasn't sure why. For a moment, he thought the boy was about to tell him something extremely important. The eight-year-old's scrutinised gaze was too intense and unwavering for there not to be a heavy meaning behind it, yet the contact was broken by Monty's abrupt bark.

Blinking, Deeks scolded his dog for barking simply because he wasn't getting all the attention for the moment. Daniel sighed and leaned against the back of the sofa, looking disappointed and sad.

'Daniel.' Deeks said delicately while leaning towards the child. 'You know you can tell me anything, right?'

Daniel deferred an answer.

He kept his face turned away from Deeks, and didn't even look up when Kensi rejoined them. Deeks was distracted by her huff of annoyance, but the previous moment between Daniel wouldn't be easily forgotten.

'Leaha.' Kensi told him. 'That's the old woman who _"swooped"_ down on you.' She rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms over her pale shirt. 'Leaha and Nancy don't like each other, apparently. They're also always competing.'

Kensi felt the need to inform Deeks, as it was always useful in their situation to know every potential person they may come in contact with at some point during their stay in the neighbourhood, or who to watch out for. She wasn't sure what it had been about Betsy, but Kensi rather liked the woman. She refused to admit it was likely because Betsy make a point of denoting that she doesn't like Nancy either.

'According to Betsy-'

'Who?' Deeks interrupted, trying to sort through the mental lists of names and faces of their neighbours that Eric had shown them.

'She lives one house over from Nancy.' Kensi said. 'Brown hair. Glasses. Barely average height. She said Nancy would never attend an afternoon event, of any kind, at Leaha's. The invite you accepted on our behalf was probably a well-intended trick to get to know us through nosiness and guilt-trips because we're so new, accordingly to Betsy.'

'How would she know?' Deeks wondered.

'Betsy Rayne moved here only a couple of months ago.' Kensi shrugged, thinking the woman had experienced it herself and kindly sought them out to warn them of the old woman's over-eagerness to know all of the neighbours in the street. 'Betsy gave us an excuse to bail. Nancy is hosting a backyard party as an alternative. Leaha will have no hard feelings if we all showed up to that instead of her little afternoon tea. Either way, Leaha will just blame it all on Nancy's constant need to one-up her.'

'So...' Deeks absorbed the new information and sorted through a possible escape or option to supersede it.

Looking carefully at Kensi, he realised there was no getting out of attending some form of a social event with the neighbours that afternoon, if Daniel had recovered enough to attend alongside them.

'We're going to a party?'

'Yeah.' Kensi said, glaring at him in consistent belief that he was to blame for it. 'We're going to a party, together.' She stated firmly.

'Together.' Deeks repeated, knowing it meant they'd have to demonstrate their expected relationship to the neighbours.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be looking forward to that, or dreading it. And after seeing the look on Kensi's face, Deeks wished he'd been able to more effectively evade Leaha and her swooping powers of persuasion.

* * *

'6...6...2...4.' Callen checked the serial numbers on the large storage containers, reading off the little scrap of lightly crumpled paper to confirm it was the right one.

The tall corridor of steel and metal was dark, though the cemented floor was visible enough for one to make their way along it without much difficulty. Sam pursued behind him, looking up at the dim lights overhead and wondered if it was suspicious that the one above their designated container was faulty - enough for the light to provide no additional assistance to making out the printed number above the door.

'What are we hoping to find inside?' Sam asked, wanting to know if Callen had any expectations for the contents of the large storage shipping container Eric had located.

It was in the Valley, and had been fully paid for by the Lieutenant Ellis for the last year - and in advance for another six months. Even so, Sam was doubtful that whatever they were going to discover inside the container wasn't going to be of much help in locating the missing pair. Unless they found the Lieutenant himself dead inside – it was a worse case scenario, but with their jobs it wasn't exactly something that had never happened before.

'A jacuzzi.' Callen joked. 'Or maybe a really nice car.' He smirked, looking over his shoulder at Sam, while getting out his gun.

'Why would someone store a jacuzzi in a former shipping container?' Sam rolled his eyes. He also got out his gun, and watched alertly as Callen turned the key in the padlock to remove it.

'I would.' Callen shrugged, before seriousness set in his expression.

He aimed his gun at the parting of the container, and gripped the bar across the right door. Callen braced himself, then yanked it open and directed his gun around the large space of the interior. It was pitch black, but they had lights attached to their guns that enabled the pair to distinguish general shapes within: a table, a large board with papers pinned to it, and an overturned crate.

Callen went in first, making sure the place was clear before he lowered his gun. Sam followed suit, but flinched when something touched his head. Looking up, and pointing his gun at it, he exhaled at the sight of a dangling thin chain leading to an overhead light-bulb.

Sam gave it a tug, and the container was flooded with artificial light.

'Wow.' Callen commented, putting his gun away. 'This is not what I expected.'

Sam gave his partner a dead-panned expression, before he focused on the board hanging on the right wall. There were papers, though a lot of extra space and tacks indicated most of the papers had been pulled from the board by force. The few remaining pieces weren't very telling – mostly they were reminders about upcoming rent payments on the container itself, and various notes scribbled in a rushed form of handwriting that was too hard to make out the words of.

'No answers.' Callen grumbled. He kicked the empty crate, which appeared to have been searched and its contents hurriedly stolen. 'Just more questions.'

'And big ones.' Sam frowned, leaning closer to examine the desk.

There was a cylinder container completely filled with newly sharpened office pencils, yet a blue colouring pencil sat half-used on the table. Underneath it was a picture of Daniel as a toddler being held by his proudly smiling mother. There were also two pieces of paper Sam accurately guessed had never been pinned to the overhead board: a handwritten list of street addresses complied with minor details of a time and date, whereas the second piece of paper was smaller, older, and had a long number written on it that made no sense to the onlookers.

'He was tracking.' Callen realised, picking up the paper with the addresses. 'The first one is in Florida, and the last right here in Los Angeles. The first date is a month before they moved, and the last was three weeks ago.'

'If the tracker becomes the hunted, why leave this behind?' Sam thought it seemed a bit sloppy for someone to steal anything useful from the container, and yet leave those addresses behind.

'For us.' Callen nodded, staring morosely at the picture of toddler Daniel with his mother. 'Lieutenant Ellis could have been the one to clear this place out. According to the security footage, no one suspicious has been in here in the last six months. Only Ellis.'

'He knew they were coming.' Sam said in a grave tone, looking around the relatively vacant space around them. 'He knew they'd find him.'

~ LB ~

'You don't have to answer any question they might ask you.' Deeks coached Daniel, while standing in the boy's room to adjust the child's appearance in preparation of the back yard party across the street.

'What are godparents?' Daniel asked nervously.

'People who are there to look after you when your parents can't.' Deeks explained, but not thoroughly.

He had already warned Daniel about not letting anyone know his parents were missing, as it wouldn't end well otherwise if their cover was blown. The boy was feeling a lot better and wanted to play with some of the kids who would be at the party. Even so – Kensi, Deeks, and Daniel would have all have preferred to stay home and attempt to cook another hopeless meal.

'Can Monty come with us?' Daniel asked when Deeks stepped back.

'I think he'd rather stay here.' Deeks replied. 'Large crowds make him anxious when he's not working.'

'Me too.' Daniel sighed.

'You'll be fine.' Deeks ruffled the boy's hair to cheer him up. 'And we'll be right there with you.' He glanced into the hallway and rolled his eyes. 'If she ever finishes getting ready.' He muttered under his breath, walking to the main bedroom to peer inside.

Kensi stood in front of the full-length mirror where she alternated between holding up a dark purple blouse and an evenly toned blue one.

'Really?' Deeks asked, staring at her.

'I wasn't prepared.' Kensi glared at him, wishing she could just decide on a shirt and get the event over with, rather than feel nervous and have Deeks chuckling at her agitation.

Turning, she lifted the blouses again, which were on a hanger each, and raised an eyebrow at him.

'Really?' Deeks repeated, realising she wanted his opinion. 'You've never asked me before.'

'Well, I'm asking you now.' Kensi frowned.

Deeks was well aware of the fact that if he picked the "wrong" one then she could hold it against him - it would be considered as his bad choice instead hers. Either way, the fact she trusted him enough to choose something for her to wear wasn't lost on him.

'Blue.' Deeks answered casually, leaning against the frame of the open door.

'Why?' Kensi criticised, looking over the blue blouse very carefully.

'I have to have a reason?' Deeks scoffed.

'Yes.' Kensi nodded firmly.

'I'm ready.' Daniel said, appearing beside Deeks. 'Can we go now?'

'What do you think, Daniel?' Deeks re-directed. 'Think Kensi would look better in purple or blue?'

'I dunno.' Daniel shrugged, then examined the two shirts. 'Blue.' The boy answered because he'd heard Deeks say the colour a moment earlier, and was afraid of giving a bad answer.

'See?' Deeks smirked at Kensi, who only rolled her eyes and went to change in their private bathroom. Sighing, he turned and nudged Daniel downstairs so they could wait for Kensi to finish getting ready.

~ LB ~

'Safety Deposit Box?' Nell suggested, looking across at Eric.

'Too long.' He answered, staring intently at the piece of paper with the long number on it. It had been handed directly to him by Sam, and come from the Ellis storage container in San Diego.

And it was, non-surprisingly, up to them to decipher it.

'Well.' Nell sighed heavily. 'They're not co-ordinates, a phone number, part of an address, a shipping serial number, or any form of code I can find that makes sense for Lieutenant Ellis to have written on a piece of paper then attach to a board in a secret storage area. And there's nothing to match it to any of the files he had access to, from what we've been able to find.' She said with annoyance relating to the lack of accomplishment with their latest clue.

'Anything?' Callen asked, striding into the Ops room.

'We're still trying.' Eric grumbled. 'I'm not feeling the glow of success lately.' He added, since most of their tasks had reached a temporary dead end or was missing too much information to be useful with what they knew so far.

'I might have something.' Nate said, walking inside with Sam and Hetty following suit.

He went to Nell and instructed her to scan a copy of both sides of the assignment Daniel had written. She did so, and brought it up on the main screen.

'There.' Nate pointed to the bottom corner of the back.

He zoomed in on it, making the tiny mark larger until it became clear that the seemingly unnoticeable scribble was actually words. Stepping right in front of the screen, the others squinted in attempt to read it, until Nate was able to magnify the words to a clearer size.

'He is always watching.' Nate read aloud.

'Always?' Callen frowned, looking over to Eric and Nell.

'We've seen no indication of them being tailed.' Nell answered his unasked question.

'And no one has paid special attention to Daniel.' Eric added. 'Do you think he's still watching?' He worried, swerving his chair around to search through surveillance footage in attempt to find something they might have missed.

'Maybe.' Callen stared at the tiny words carefully written by Daniel Ellis. 'Either way, Daniel might have known they were coming too. He knows something he's not telling us.'

'He wants to.' Nate said sadly. 'More than anything. I strongly believe Daniel desperately wants to tell his story.'

~ LB ~

'How long have you two been together?' Asked a tall man with short, dark hair. He was Peter Jefferson, one of the neighbours Kensi and Deeks had met during the course of the supposed_ "back yard"_ party.

'Uh, ha.' Deeks chuckled, keeping his arm secured around Kensi's waist.

She offered him a smile of fondness, though her eyes said otherwise and he knew it was not a question they could easily avoid without some level of honesty.

'Excuse me.' Betsy said, passing between Peter and the apparent couple. She walked around the kitchen counter to sample some some of appetites spread out in bowls on a nearby table, doing her best not to eavesdrop.

'It feels like ten years.' Deeks joked to Peter. 'But it's more like two.'

'Barely.' Kensi added. 'A year and eight months.'

'That's impressive.' Peter nodded. 'And Daniel seems like a good kid.'

Peter looked to the side, where they could easily see Daniel sitting on a very large armchair with another boy. The second child was at least two years older than Daniel, and had light brown hair.

'Cole seems to like him.'

'Excuse me.' Kensi sighed, feeling her phone vibrate, to indicate an incoming message, and assumed it might involve an important update from Ops.

She walked a distance away from the men, and made sure not to be in close range to Betsy or else she'd be pulled into a conversation at an inconvenient time. Kensi saw she had a text from Callen, but didn't get the chance to read it when she saw Daniel hurriedly approaching her.

'What's wrong?' Kensi worried.

The boy had run to her and pressed his face against her side. Daniel wrapped his arms around her middle and didn't make a sound until she'd questioned him. Stepping back, the child looked up at her with an eager expression laced with cautious hesitancy.

'Cole asked me to come play outside with the other kids.' Daniel said. 'They do it all the time and Cole's dad will watch us.' He pointed to Peter. 'Can I go play with them, please?'

'Oh, I can watch him.' Betsy offered the moment she overheard.

Kensi considered the fact there were only six other neighbours at the party, and a few kids who had arrived to keep Cole and Daniel company. There were enough cameras outside for Eric and Nell to keep an eye on Daniel, and yet Kensi did not consider any outcome in which involved letting the boy out of her side.

'Maybe later.' Kensi allowed in the interest of preventing any possible arguments. 'We have a few more people to talk to first.' She said, narrowing her eyes when she saw Nancy making her way over to Deeks.

Peter had gone outside to supervise the kids play a game on the streets, leaving Deeks standing alone in the kitchen - once Betsy had returned to the living room where most of the noise originated. Nancy had a short too-tight skirt on, a rather formed blouse, too much make-up, and an overpriced hairstyle. She watched Deeks with a smile Kensi did not approve of, while he did his best to pretend he wasn't bothered by her advancing company.

Kensi halted, remembering the text message from Callen, and left Deeks to the mercy of Nancy for a moment longer.

They'd only been at the party for an hour, and only two of the nearby neighbours weren't in attendance. They'd all had a background check, yet Kensi was not confident that any of them could be completely trusted. Especially not Nancy, she thought, as she eyed the woman with distaste.

Betsy Rayne seemed nice, for a woman who lived alone with her cat and a large pile of novels. Peter Jefferson was a single dad working two jobs, while Nancy Westfield was a single mother with no need for any job. Leaha Porter was the old lady who often lost track of where she was walking or what day it was, and yet there were two people who lived close-by and had not shown up at the party. Mac Smith seemed to always be at work, and not many of the neighbours seem him around very often - whereas Albert Moore was purposefully avoided by all of the residences on the block.

'I can hear him from here.' Kensi heard someone say, as she passed the living room where the noise had significantly decreased. 'Damn old Al and his monster of a dog, always barking when Nancy has guests over.'

'I'm not interrupting, I hope?' Kensi said sweetly, though she wore a no-nonsense expression of intimidation. 'We have to go soon, honey.' She looped her arm around Deeks, and kept her steely gaze on Nancy - who quickly got the silent message and made an excuse to rejoin the party.

'Problem, Sugarbear?' Deeks teased, amused by the apparent dislike Kensi automatically expressed whenever Nancy gave him any suggestive attention.

'No.' Kensi was aware of being watched, so she leaned to kiss his cheek and kept close in order to whisper into his ear without looking suspicious. 'Callen thinks someone might still be watching Daniel, but they're not sure. He wrote something in one of his school projects, or whatever.'

Deeks smiled and kept an arm around her waist while listening, then turned her so he could look over her shoulder. Daniel was sitting unhappily on an armchair, whereas his previous company seemed to have gone outside with the other kids.

'Make an excuse to leave.' Kensi said, stepping back. 'Leaha keeps trying to talk to me, and she doesn't stop asking questions. And then there's this.' She gestured to the short amount of space between them.

'So? We're supposed to be together.' Deeks stated. 'We've played a married couple before. What's the big deal?'

'That's different.' Kensi said to him in low tones, glad they had a relative amount of privacy as she pulled him further into the kitchen. 'When we're married, we have to find ways to work through things. As a couple, it's less permanent. I could just walk away.'

'You'd give up on us, just like that?' Deeks frowned. 'Really?'

'Deeks, there is no us!' Kensi hissed to him. 'There is no thing, and we are not nor will ever be a couple for real.'

'Okay.' Deeks said and turned away. He focused on a silver platter on the counter next to them, trying to hide his expression of apparent hurt, which Kensi was surprised to notice.

'Deeks...' She instantly felt guilty, though Kensi had no idea why she should.

'Never?' Deeks asked, staring intently at her.

'Maybe not_ "never"_, but I really don't see it happening.' Kensi reasoned with a sigh and mild roll of her eyes. 'Can you even imagine us, together, for real?' She snorted.

'Actually, yes.' Deeks nodded, standing right in front of her again. 'Granted, it would probably shorten my life span and we'd be doomed from the start – but yeah, I can see it.'

'You can?' Kensi stared back at him, unsure if he was serious or not.

'I can.' Deeks confirmed, popping a grape into his mouth.

'You can see us coming home from work every day, together?' Kensi elaborated. 'Us going out on dates, sharing our everyday lives, and trusting each other completely – all of it?'

'It is really that hard to believe?' Deeks asked, partially amused and also disbelieving that Kensi hadn't seemed to have given it much thought until then.

'Answer the question.' She frowned, placing her hands on her hips.

'Yes.' Deeks told her quietly.

'Huh.' Kensi considered the new information and wasn't sure how to handle it. 'Okay.' She nodded, giving the appearance of no longer being interested in the conversation as she turned to head for the living room.

'Okay?' Deeks stared at her, stunned. 'What, that's it?' He accused with a pout of confusion, watching her walk away from him. 'That's all you have to say?'

Kensi didn't answer, as she left the kitchen and headed into the spacious crowd filling the living room.

'Kensi?' Deeks whined, following after her. 'Kensi!'

Daniel looked up when a shadow cast over him. He inched back in his seat, until he relaxed with the realisation that it was just Kensi. She told him they were leaving, but if he still wanted to play with the other kids than he could for a little while.

With a shy smile of anticipation, he followed after Kensi while wondering why Deeks kept watching her with a weird look.

It was later in the afternoon, so Daniel wasn't surprised to see the street bathed in more shadows than sunlight. A group of kids, mostly a few years older than he was, were playing a game in the middle of the road. At first it looked like risky area to play, but Daniel noted that no cars tended to drive on the road unless it was very early in the morning. There were several other adults outside watching the kids play, such as Betsy and Peter, so Daniel wasn't too worried about the danger of traffic as he hurried to join them.

'You came.' Cole, the boy with light brown hair and hazel eyes, smiled.

'Yeah.' Daniel nodded.

He glanced over to see his protectors standing outside their safe cover house, observing him intently.

Daniel got along with several of his classmates at school, but he didn't have any friends. It was nice to be invited to play with the other kids, even if he didn't understand what game they were playing.

He tried to catch the ball when it flew towards him, as Cole cheered for him to, but Daniel panicked under pressure and missed. Daniel and Cole were on the same team, so they both chased after the ball when it rolled further down the street. Neither of them heard Deeks calling Daniel's name, or saw any of the other kids wince when they noticed where the ball had gone.

'Uh oh.' Cole said, looking at the tall wooden fence towering over them.

Their ball had slipped through the matching open gate, which revealed patches of unkempt grass.

'That's old Al's place.'

'Who's old Al?' Daniel frowned, becoming worried when he saw how nervous Cole was.

'He's a grumpy old man with a really mean dog.' Cole gasped, taking a step back when they heard barking from inside the yard. 'RUN!' He yelled to Daniel, spinning around to flee the scene.

Daniel only had to hear the growls passing through the open gate, and see the emerged appearance of very large paws, before he'd turned and hurried away. He was frightened by the aggressive barking he heard, making it harder for him to run straight. He zigzagged away, almost tripping with each terrified step, and was soon out-running Cole – who was not an especially athletic boy.

'Ah!' Cole yelled when the dog caught up to him, knocking the boy down onto his stomach by biting at his arm.

Daniel froze and turned back, not sure what to do.

Immediately, chaos broke out all along the street. Peter was running towards them, panic-stricken, and shouting profanities at the dog standing on his son's back. Betsy shrieked with horror and concern, while the other kids had scattered and either ran to the safety of their own homes, or their parent's embrace. The dog, which wasn't any definitive breed recognisable - with its dark coat and hungry-looking eyes, soon lost interest in Cole and looked straight at Daniel.

In the space of several seconds prior to the dog's escape from its yard, Deeks had turned to head inside the safe cover house and Kensi moved to retrieve Daniel from where he had headed to the end of the street. At the yells and barks, Deeks paused in the open doorway of the house while Kensi stared in shock to seeing the two children fleeing from a monstrously-sized beast of a dog.

'NO!' Kensi screamed in stricken alarm and a cold fear struck her when the dog reached Daniel, who had tripped and spun around to face the beast.

She ran as fast as she could, but someone else was faster.

A streaking blur sped passed her and headed straight for Daniel. Kensi didn't need to hear Deeks' yell to know what had happened, because she saw it unfolding in front of her eyes. Time became seamless; Kensi moved as fast as she could, yet everything else appeared to be going much faster. It took her seconds to reach Daniel, but by then there was nothing she could do.

Monty had slipped through the space of Deeks' legs and the open door, running at full speed to the young child he knew was in terrible danger. Despite the extremely significant disadvantage he had compared to Old Al's giant dog, Monty bravely stood between child and beast, barking with all the protective aggression he could muster.

The two dogs growled at each other, until Monty lunged forward and chomped down on the beasts' paw. An echoing yelp followed, but it hadn't come from the dark attacker.

'Monty, no!' Daniel cried.

He knew Month had tried to save him, and he knew his saviour did not stand a statistical chance against another dog so powerful and aggressive. And yet, Monty had tried. He barked, growled, and bit, but in the end Monty was swung by the mighty jaws of the other dog as though he was nothing. The only thing that prevented a full-on fight to the death was the resounding explosion of a gunshot, which Deeks had carefully aimed to hit the road a few feet from the beast.

Startled, the dog turned and cowardly bounded back to its yard.

'Daniel, are you hurt?' Kensi reached the boy first and pulled him towards her.

'Monty!' Daniel sobbed, shoving Kensi away so he could crawl towards his fallen hero.

Monty lay on his side with a deep bite wound marking his stomach. Blood began to pool under him, and Kensi rushed to his side in effort to stop the bleeding. She pressed her hand to his fur, but pulled away as soon as Deeks took over seconds later.

'Daniel.' Kensi said again. She wrapped her arms around his middle to force the child to move aside, and pulled him to his feet.

'He saved me!' Daniel dove at her.

The boy buried his face to her, which transferred the blood from his hands to her blouse, and cried while Kensi wrapped her clean arm around him in effort to soothe the boy.

'I know.' Kensi nodded.

Whilst Daniel sobbed, Kensi could only watch with worry as Deeks focused solely on stopping the blood flow while trying to juggle his phone.

The rest was a blur.

Peter had called an ambulance for his son, Cole, and then assisted Deeks in gently getting Monty into his car. Daniel shoved away from Kensi and ran after them, ensuring he could go with them to the veterinary clinic. Kensi remained behind. She'd overheard that the dog belonged to one of the neighbours, and was intent on confronting him, which was the only other thing Deeks had noticed. Before leaving, he had taken her gun and knew if anything happened she could still defend herself without it.

Kensi could hardly move.

She stared downwards at her hand, seeing the bright red blood smeared over the surface of her palm, and put her efforts into not allowing the events to replay in her mind. It didn't matter that the blood wasn't hers, when she felt the pain as though it was. Her entire form shuddered from shock, even as she used every ounce of her strength not to cry. She knew Deeks would be feeling worse than she was – much worse, and he will need her perseverance.

Kensi stood alone on the grass outside the cover house, slowly looking up and over to the pooling of blood on the road. Without her weapon, Kensi was less eager to go after Albert for not ensuring his dog didn't escape – but she wasn't going to let that stop her from seeking him out.

'I'm so sorry.' Betsy said as she approached Kensi, pushing her glasses higher on her nose as she looked at her with sympathy. Betsy raised her hand to place it on Kensi's shoulder, trying to offer any comfort she could, but her touch was immediately shrugged off.

'Don't.' Kensi uttered furiously, her voice breaking slightly as she spoke. 'I can't. It's my fault.'

'No, it's not.' Betsy tried to assure her.

'Is Cole okay?' Kensi re-directed, mostly as an afterthought.

'He's on the way to the hospital.' Betsy confirmed with an exhale of relief. 'He'll be fine.'

The shock still overtaking her senses prevented Kensi from having something to answer with, so she remained quiet. She looked down at her hand again, wishing the blood no longer looked as fresh as it had when Monty had been hauled aside by the beast only moments earlier. The redness was smeared on her blue blouse as well, the one Deeks and Daniel had chosen for her earlier, and yet she never wanted to wear the blue shirt again.

'It's my fault.' Kensi whispered. 'I couldn't stop it. Deeks will never forgive me.'

In a sort period of time, so much had gone wrong.

If she hadn't let Daniel play with the other kids, maybe Monty wouldn't have rushed to the rescue. Maybe, if she'd moved faster - acted quicker, then the dog's brave act wouldn't have been necessary. Daniel was her responsibility, and she had failed him. Kensi, unable to stand in the street any longer, turned and headed into the house.

To say Monty was just a dog wouldn't be right.

The other dog had been so big, and so dangerous, yet Monty only had concern for the small human he was protecting without any regard for his own safety. And it was more than that. Kensi couldn't forget the way Daniel had cried at the sight of Monty being tossed aside by the jaws of the attacking dog, or the way Deeks looked when he leaned over Monty in desperation to save him.

It was the look on Deeks' face that bothered her more than anything.

And then, as Kensi leaned her back against the wall beside the door, more images and emotions swarmed her consciousness. The blood was the trigger. She saw Dom, lying bloody on the rooftop while Sam tried to revive him, then Monty resting motionless on his side as Deeks did everything he could to stop the blood from pooling.

It was all too similar.

'It's not your fault.'

Kensi inhaled a sharp breath, wiping stray tears from her eyes, and looked to her left at the open doorway. She saw Deeks standing there, staring at her with perhaps the most serious expression she had ever seen on his face. Beside him was Daniel, with Deeks' arm draped protectively around his shoulders.

'Deeks.' Kensi spoke, clearing her throat, as she tried to gather herself. 'I should have done something.'

'You did.' Deeks nodded. 'Monty's going to be okay. He's in surgery, but the bite isn't serious. We can bring him home tomorrow.'

'Good.' Kensi nodded, adverting her gaze.

'He got hurt because he was saving me.' Daniel sniffed.

'We talked about this.' Deeks said firmly. 'Don't blame yourself.' He said to the boy, though looked over at Kensi too.

Daniel wasn't listening. His eyes filled with tears, and it made Kensi's own turmoil seem less of a priority.

Deeks reached down and lifted the boy into his arms, carrying Daniel to the sofa to calm him down, while Kensi remained where she was. Waiting until they were busily distracted, Kensi turned to leave the house. She marched down the street until she located the tall wood fence where the rough dog had escaped from, which had been closed in the meantime.

Not taking the chance of facing the beast with less mercy than before, Kensi walked around the back and ensured there was enough actual fence between herself and the distant barking.

'Mr Moore?' Kensi called out loudly. 'Mr Moore, I need to speak with you!'

'Who is it?'

The irritated reply came from inside the house, before the screen door swung open to reveal a grumpy man with a cane. He was slightly hunched and rather round in the belly, though his face was set with a well-established frown.

'Kensi Blye.' She answered. 'Your dog is a menace!' Kensi accused furiously.

She was about to tell him just how much chaos and hurt the beast had caused in such a short period of time, but he'd interrupted her to say it wasn't his dog.

'Tank is my son's dog.' Albert grumbled. 'I've been telling him to take the beast home, but he's still renovating his new house. What's the mutt done now?'

'He almost seriously hurt two boys.' Kensi stated, knowing the barrier of the fence did more than just protect her from the dog itself. 'One of them was my godson. Our dog tried to protect him, and now he's in surgery!'

~ LB ~

While Kensi verbally battled with Albert, Deeks remained warily in their safe cover house with Daniel.

He made sure to only think about the boy, who was quietly seated against him in need to feel secure, and avoided any imagery of Monty being hurt in a pool of blood.

'I like you better.' Daniel spoke in a voice so quiet Deeks almost hadn't heard him. 'You saved Monty. You won't let anything bad happen to me, right?' He looked up at Deeks with a penetrating stare.

'I'll keep you safe, buddy.' Deeks promised. 'Kensi too. We'll keep you safe.'

'I know.' Daniel whispered.

A smile spread over the child's lips as he sleepily leaned against Deeks' side, feeling as warm and secure as he had when Kensi brought him home from the sick bay that morning.

'Just don't ever leave me.'

* * *

**Author's Notes: Next chapter will contain May Ellis, and some highly significant developments. Thank you for reading, and please take a moment to send me any feedback you have to offer/share.**


	5. Waves of Truth

**Author's****Notes:** Thank you for your patience. It's just after 4am, but I had to get this chapter up for you. I had most of it written for a while, but only recently got around to finalising it. I am not entirely certain of any accuracy regarding Agent Sullivan, so if it's inconsistent to anything said on the show - my bad. I hope you enjoy this chapter, as it's the longest one for this fic so far and will also contain a soon-to-be reoccurring OC character for this story, and significant plot progressions. It also contains several scenes shown in the video tributes for this story, which the link can be found in my profile. Thanks again, to all of my readers and reviewers!

Warning: this chapter contains spoilers regarding Agents **Sullivan**, **Hunter**, and **Renko**. If you are not caught up-to-date on the show, please be advised of those major spoilers.

* * *

**~ Waves of Truth ~**

With the official (albeit false) excuse of still being sick, Daniel didn't attend school the next day. Kensi, while sympathising for the fact Daniel and Deeks wanted to stay with Monty, wished another day of work hadn't gone to waste on her part.

They brought Monty home early in the morning, and Daniel did not leave the dog's side for the rest of the day unless he had to. Monty slept on the couch most of the time, with a large bandage wrapped in layers around his side and back. Deeks also didn't stray too far from his beloved dog, and it left Kensi wondering what to do with all their extra time.

Some of the neighbours stopped by in the afternoon, including Cole, to see how they were. Betsy even offered to have them over for dinner that night, and because none of them were willing to attempt another around of amateur cooking after such a stressful ordeal with Monty, they agreed. Deeks was always the one to greet the visitors, as Kensi had taken to doing any work she could at the table with her laptop. Most of the time she was conversing with Nate through a video call, while the others behind him expressed their annoyance that May Ellis wouldn't be at the boat shed until Friday afternoon.

'Can I have a cookie?' Daniel asked Kensi, leaving Monty's side for the first non-urgent reason all day. He walked over to where she sat at the table, and eyed the large jar on the kitchen counter filled with a tempting pile chocolate cookies, which had been home-made for them by Betsy.

'No.' Kensi said firmly, looking up from her laptop after ending the conversation with Nate. 'We're going to dinner in less than half an hour.'

'But I'm hungry now!' Daniel whined.

Deeks smirked at the situation, watching from where he leaned his elbows on the kitchen counter with a surfing magazine in front of him. He was glad things seemed calmer now, after the long day they'd had. Looking at the couch, where he knew Monty was sleeping, Deeks exhaled and shuddered in memory of how close he'd come to losing his canine pal. Daniel was worried about the dog too, but it wasn't the full reasoning behind the boy's agitated mood. They'd received a call from Callen earlier, updating them on May Ellis, and Kensi had asked Daniel if he wanted to see his grandmother.

The eight-year-old hadn't replied; he just shook his head adamantly, and went back to Monty. Daniel didn't say a word for over two hours after that, until he'd spotted the cookies in the jar.

'We better get going.' Kensi sighed, rising from her seat.

She stretched, and closed her laptop, while Deeks flipped the last page of his magazine with disappointment. Kensi went upstairs to find a pair of shoes, and returned a moment later to see neither of the boys had moved. Casting them each a frown, Kensi didn't get the chance to admonish them when her phone rang.

'Yeah?' Deeks answered it, as it had been sitting on the counter right in front of him. 'Kensi's phone.' He said casually, thinking it was Callen with another update.

'What?' Kensi hissed when she saw Deeks straighten rather suddenly. 'And who said you could answer my phone?' She growled and snatched it off him while trying to put on a blue high heel shoe.

'Hello?'

'Kensi?'

'Oh.' Kensi flinched. 'Hi, mum. Hang on, I have to put you on speaker phone.' She said, unable to get her shoe on with one hand despite having skilfully done it many times in the past.

Kensi ignored Deeks' expression of uncertainty and placed her phone on the counter to continue the conversation, hurriedly trying to think of an excuse for not calling her mother earlier in the week to tell her about the temporary arrangement.

'Kensi, why is Marty answering your phone?' Julia wondered.

'Is that grandma?' Daniel wandered over.

His assumption was based only upon hearing a woman's voice on the phone, further clarifying how much of a stranger he considered May Ellis to be. It was all he'd been able to think about since they'd asked him if he wanted to see her.

'I-' Kensi blushed with awkwardness and already regretted putting her phone on speaker. 'Go put your shoes on.' She instructed instead, her mind rushing through possible explanations to tell her mother.

The fact they might still be watched by someone made her more on edge about their cover, so Kensi did not want to outright tell her mother the specifics over the phone.

'I was worried when you didn't call.' Julia said. She had been quiet for a minute, putting together the strange occurrences of Marty answering Kensi's phone at a late hour, and a child asking if she was his grandmother.

Suddenly, Julia became very concerned that she'd missed an extremely crucial detail about her daughter's life.

'I'm so sorry.' Kensi apologised. 'I was busy, and I know that's not an excuse but I...I'm sorry, mum.' She glanced up and saw Daniel reaching for the cookie jar. 'Deeks, move that damn jar to a higher shelf. He's going to spoil his appetite.'

Deeks snatched the jar from the boy's pending reach, and placed the container in an overhead cupboard, which resolved the child into a brief fit of whining. Deeks glanced warily at Kensi's phone on the counter, then sighed.

'Come on, buddy.' Deeks directed Daniel away from the kitchen, while Kensi spoke with her mother. 'You can have a cookie before bed, okay?'

'Okay.' Daniel grumbled.

He stomped his feet as he went to put his shoes on, which Kensi had instructed him to do.

The boy sat on the space of floor in front of where Monty was sleeping, and busied himself with lacing up his shoes. He looked over at the slumbering dog with concerned adoration and continued relief to see his canine pal was recovering. Getting up, Daniel moved closer to the couch and bent lower to gently pat Monty's head.

The dog's eyes opened to watch him curiously, and Daniel responded by offering him a smile.

'We're leaving now.' Kensi announced from the doorway, with Deeks standing beside her looking to have just received a punch in the arm. 'Daniel?'

'I'll be back soon, Monty.' Daniel whispered to the dog and kissed Monty's soft forehead. 'I promise.' The boy nodded, then hurried to join his protectors.

Deeks smiled proudly at the kind boy, whereas Kensi had been too busy flitting through her purse to have noticed.

Daniel shivered when he looked through the open doorway, and stared towards the spot on the road where Monty had gotten hurt the previous day. He fidgeted and felt cold all over, then jumped when something touched his left shoulder. Leaning his head back, he saw Deeks' reassuring nod and felt the chilling sensation fade. Daniel clutched Deeks' hand for safety when they left the doorway, then turned to look up at Kensi. She was busy locking the door, but when she turned around - Daniel could not resist. He remembered her shout when they all thought the beast was going to get him, and Daniel knew her yell had been for him.

She had been scared too; scared that someone was going to hurt him.

Slowly, with Deeks watching on with a barely-concealed smile, Daniel reached to clasp Kensi's hand as well. His tender action had surprised her, and it showed on her face, so much it discouraged the boy enough to pull his hand away. Kensi looked at Deeks, who tilted his head with a promoting expression to offer her encouragement.

Kensi exhaled a long breath, and extended her hand to softly grip Daniel's right hand.

The boy's hand was much smaller and more fragile than hers, Kensi noticed, while she and Deeks led the child across the road. It left a deeper impression on her memories as she replayed the moment when the beastly dog had lunged towards Daniel. It was frightening to think her hand could easy overpower his, and then consider the sort of damage crushing jaws could have done to the boy.

'Kensi?' Deeks noticed his partner's face pale a little as they crossed the road, which was poorly lit by overhead street lamps and minimal moonlight.

Daniel looked up at her and panic began to swell inside him. He pushed onward, using every ounce of strength he had to drag them both with him. The boy had a tight grip on Deeks' hand, though it was Kensi who was unable to let go of his. Daniel was glad the blood on the road had somehow vanished because he never wanted to see such a horrifying sight again.

Kensi brushed off Deeks' concern by ignoring the attention he gave her, and raised her free hand to knock on the pale green door of Betsy's house.

Kensi was consistently distracted and distant from the social scene when Betsy answered the door, then invited them inside. Deeks kept his gaze focused on Kensi, even when he was the one to greet Betsy and maintain the general flow of conversation by answering her questions as simply as possible. Daniel had calmed considerably once he was no longer outside in the street, though his shyness soon shone through as he agreed to help Betsy carry some plates to the table. Deeks left Daniel with Betsy in the nearby room, and headed over to where Kensi stood in front of a china cabinet.

Deeks touched her shoulder to get her attention, which startled her, but neither of them had to say anything.

Kensi glanced at his face, knowing he was silently asking her if she was okay and if there was anything he could do to help. Exhaling, Kensi shook her head and rejoined the others in the next room. Deeks remained standing by the china cabinet, listening to Kensi's departing footsteps. There were decorative plates and other various fragile objects safely protected by the glass of the china cabinet, yet he didn't notice the display. Deeks' mind was seeing something that could have been broken in ways glass could not, as he flashed back to the previous day.

He vividly remembered the sight of the two boys running for their lives, then Cole being knocked down before the beast went after Daniel. During that moment, Deeks felt as if his heart had painfully stopped - then he heard Kensi scream. He'd almost lost people he'd cared about in the line of fire before, and he had lost some too, but anything he'd ever endured before could not compare to the fear he'd experienced that afternoon. Deeks had come close to watching a giant dog do serious damage to Daniel, and possibly kill Monty. It had happened in seconds, and yet Deeks hadn't been able to move until Kensi fired her weapon – the echoing sound had snapped his mind back into focus. By then, all he saw was Monty lying on the road in his own blood.

That image would be etched into his mind for a very, very long time.

Deeks, much like Kensi had, jumped when he felt a sudden touch.

He looked down and saw Daniel's arms wrapped around his middle while the child's face stared up at him. Deeks noticed Daniel's blonde hair and blue eyes more clearly than before, which Kensi kept saying greatly resembled his own. The child had never hugged him like that before, and Deeks couldn't work out why it felt significant somehow.

'I gotta wash my hands.' Daniel told him plainly.

Deeks didn't know why the eight-year-old needed help with washing his hands, until he looked over and saw Kensi watching him. She had just stepped in for Deeks to help get him back on track, much like he had for her minutes ago. Her face was marked with concern, whereas Kensi's brown eyes showed Deeks that she understood what was going through his mind. In her own way, by sending Daniel to request his assistance, Kensi was assuring Deeks that everything was okay now.

The boy was still there, unharmed, and what happened was now only a memory.

'Okay, buddy.' Deeks nodded, directing Daniel to the stairs they both assumed would lead to a bathroom.

Their assumption was correct - the bright white room was the first door they reached. The sink was unnaturally high, however, and there was no stool. Deeks first thought the occurrence was rather strange, considering it was Betsy's house and she wasn't especially tall herself. Daniel insisted on reaching it on his own, but the top of his head was barely visible in the bottom half of the mirror. The eight-year-old rolled up the sleeves of his light blue shirt as far as they would go, and tried again to wash his hands regardless of hardly being able to reach the taps either.

The boy stopped stretching and stepped back to huff with defeat. He turned around to face Deeks, who merely watched on with amusement. Chuckling, Deeks nodded in agreement to accept the irritated boy's on-verbal request for help.

He lifted the boy under the arms to balance Daniel against his hip, facing the sink. While Daniel rinsed the soap from his hands, Deeks noticed an odd colouring on the child's right forearm. Putting Daniel down before the water had finished draining down the sink, Deeks stared at the bruise in full awareness that it hadn't been there the night he'd helped Daniel out of the bath. He could tell it was a grab bruise – from someone holding on so tight it left a mark. Deeks had received many of those bruises during his childhood.

Deeks knew he should have asked Daniel about it, but his mind was still entwined by memories.

~ LB ~

When the pair returned to the table, dinner was already served.

Deeks sat at Kensi's right, while Daniel occupied the chair on her other side. Betsy sat across from Kensi, respecting any space they needed to be rid of memory-related distractions. She'd cooked a delicious lamb roast with vegetables and gravy, which all of her guests enjoyed.

The event lasted longer than they'd expected, yet felt to have gone by rather quickly. Betsy occupied Daniel by sending him into the living room to program her new cable box, once she'd heard he had some experience with TV-related electronics. The boy sat himself on her living room couch, in Kensi's clear line of sight, and kept pressing buttons on her remote. During that time, Betsy took the opportunity to speak without the presence of a child – the TV was loud enough to Daniel that he could not overhear what they discussed.

'How is Monty?' Betsy asked tentatively. She was easily able to recall the dog's name after Daniel had spent most of the duration of dinner re-telling her how amazing and heroic Monty was.

'He's good.' Deeks slipped into conversation mode, while Kensi remembered they still had a cover to conserve.

They were supposed to be a couple, therefore physical contact and general affection was anticipated. Kensi leaned her head to his shoulder while he spoke and, to his credit, Deeks hardly reacted. He gave the impression it was such a common occurrence that her advances were as expected to him as it was the others.

'He's recovering.' Deeks elaborated on Monty's condition. 'He'll be fine.'

'I'm glad.' Betsy exhaled. 'He was so brave. And what about Daniel; is he coping?'

'Kids are tough.' Kensi answered, repeating what she'd heard Deeks say numerous times in the past.

'They are.' Betsy agreed, smiling at the cute couple. 'Your Godson is a lovely boy, and very polite. How long did you say his parents would be away?'

Neither Kensi nor Deeks had actually given any sort of time frame regarding the parents absence. They didn't know how long the case would be going on for, and it had been easier to leave it open-ended. Even so, it would likely appear odd if they evaded the question when it was directly asked of them, which left Kensi to improvise on the spot.

'We're not entirely sure.' She said, whilst Deeks sipped from his wine glass to avoid being the one who provided an answer. 'They're travelling. If they like a place then they'll stay a bit longer. We don't mind, and they've earned a break from work.' She lied effectively.

'Well, you're doing a great job with Daniel.' Betsy nodded. 'You've been together, what, nearly two years now?'

'One year and eight months.' Kensi repeated the number she'd invented the night before, to keep things consistent and realistic.

She gave Deeks' arm a hearty squeeze and grinned broadly, hoping to portray that being with him romantically for that long was a good thing. Mentally, she imagined he'd have driven her insane by then – until his previous words reminded her he had far more optimistic views on the subject than she did.

'Time flies.' Deeks added, reaching for his wine glass again to hide his smirk as he felt Kensi squirm slightly in her seat.

'And with how well you're doing with Daniel...' Betsy said slowly, enabling them to guess where her words were going. 'Do you ever consider having a child of your own?'

'Wow!' Kensi coughed. 'We're, uh...I mean, we're not even married. Are we, honey?' She played with strands of his blonde hair, smiling slyly at Deeks' discomfort.

'Uh, right.' Deeks shifted awkwardly. 'She does that.' He told Betsy, his voice toned with sarcasm, as he cast Kensi a light frown. 'Nice, subtle hints.'

'You two are adorable.' Betsy chortled. 'And you will make great parents.'

'I keep telling her that.' Deeks reversed the attention to Kensi. 'I'm sure she'll come around when she watches little Marty J sleeping peacefully in his crib.'

'What if we have a girl?' Kensi rolled her eyes at yet another ridiculous name for their imaginary children.

'Little Kensalina then.' Deeks smirked. 'Little ninja. Smart, cute, and a charming personality.'

'So, he or she would take after me?' Kensi teased.

The group were interrupted by Daniel, who had switched off the TV and vacated the living room. The boy walked over to Kensi and leaned sideways against her, trying not to fall asleep.

She stared at him for a moment, while Deeks checked his watch and announced the time. Kensi couldn't believe how long they'd stayed, though her focus was primarily on Daniel while Deeks thanked Betsy for dinner. In attempt to prevent the boy from falling, Kensi wrapped an around around his middle to support the child's weight. She vaguely heard Deeks and Betsy exchanging farewells for the night, which gave her enough reason to leave the table as well.

'M'tired.' Daniel managed to utter before he yawned widely and his eyes began to close.

'I gotcha.' Kensi said, lifting the boy into her arms.

She hesitated, realising it was the first time she had taken direct action rather than point Deeks in the direction of the child.

She knew, at any other moment in the past, Deeks would have picked Daniel up and carried him home upon his own instincts or her insisting. Kensi glanced at Deeks and noted his surprise as well, though his amusement still shone through. She had no idea why he was always grinning whenever she took personal care of Daniel, and it annoyed her not only because it didn't make sense to her, but she also couldn't make Deeks stop.

Leaving Betsy's house, Kensi followed Deeks across the street to the safe cover house. Daniel felt heavier in a way that made her suspect he had fallen asleep. His head rested against her shoulder, and his arms hung loosely around her neck. The boy didn't move or make a sound when Deeks unlocked the front door and they were greeted via a bark from Monty. The dog was still sitting on the couch, yet appeared to be more alert than he'd been all day - his tail wagged happily and his eyes didn't just focus on what was in front of him.

It was a very welcome and gladdening sight.

'You good?' Deeks wondered, turning to shut the back door behind them and re-lock it.

'I'm good.' Kensi nodded. She securely held the child in her arms as she passed both Monty and Deeks on the way to the stairs.

Real progress was being made, Kensi believed. And yet, it was no less weird for her to be developing new skills and instincts regarding Daniel. Her confidence was slowly building, and Kensi felt better knowing Daniel was giving her a chance despite her lack of former knowledge or experience regarding children.

Daniel had been inside most of the day, situated with Monty, so Kensi didn't think he needed a bath before bed when it would involve waking him. A quick shower in the morning before school would suffice. She carried him to his room and lightly kicked open the door with her high-heeled foot, grunting in the effort not to drop the child. She was too stubborn to call Deeks for help, so Kensi was determined to continue balancing the child against her hip while she pulled back the sheets over his bed.

With an exhale of relief, Kensi very gently lay Daniel on the mattress and let his head fall softly onto the pillow. She removed his shoes, then pulled the sheets over him while Daniel continued to sleep. The boy grunted and rolled onto his side, but didn't wake. Kensi remained standing there, confused and wary of the new emotions she was feeling. She tried to brush it off at first, thinking one week wasn't long enough time to really bond with someone, but it was hard not to remember what they'd been through already.

If the beastly dog had badly hurt Daniel the day before, Kensi knew it wouldn't have mattered that a week ago she didn't even know the boy had existed - she would have been devastated.

The incident had reminded her of how fragile the eight-year-old could be, and how wrong she'd been about the chore of taking care of a child. It was still a terrifying ordeal and could bring a lack of control or peace, but now she knew there were good things too. Like the way Daniel's smile seemed to light up the room, or the sense of bravery he tried to enforce even when he was scared. The trust he'd placed in them wasn't something Kensi felt she could ever give to anyone in a single week, and yet Daniel was clearly determined to try. He wanted to give them a chance because, despite not knowing them very well, the boy knew they were there to help him.

Daniel rolled onto his back again, his eyes still closed, and crinkled his nose slightly in his sleep. Kensi placed her hand against her mouth to withhold a chuckle, wondering when she started noticing the cute things Daniel did rather than mentally listing anything he might need or place her sole focus on the situation around him; all in effort to endure his safety and comfort, but nothing more.

Sighing, she carefully brushed some hair from his face with her fingers, then turned to leave the room. Kensi inhaled a sharp gasp of surprise when she almost walked into Deeks, who had been leaning against the side of the door's frame with that smug expression on his face.

'Stop it.' She hissed at him, elbowing Deeks aside so she could leave the room.

'What?' He laughed quietly, trailing after her to their bedroom.

His smile faded while he watched her remove her own shoes, as though the air of their shared room carried the weight of serious emotions. Kensi was the first to notice as she crossed the room to use their personal bathroom and saw the expression on his face, when she'd offered him a short glance.

'Deeks?' Kensi worried. 'You okay?'

'I'm probably over-reacting.' Deeks sighed, looking downwards to stare at his shoes.

'It wouldn't be the first time.' Kensi teased, though she approached him with concern and waited for him to continue.

'I took Daniel to wash his hands.' Deeks explained. 'I saw something...his arm, it-'

'It was bruised?' Kensi finished, nodding. 'Yeah. He got it yesterday. Some kid, Billy Kruger, was on his way to the Principal's office when he saw Daniel heading for the sick bay. He thought he was skipping class and tried to convince Daniel to join him. Daniel refused, Billy grabbed him, and Daniel shoved him back before running to the nurse.'

'He told you that?' Deeks looked at her, surprised.

'In parts.' Kensi shrugged. 'It wasn't hard to guess, once he hinted a bully was involved. What did you think it was?'

'I don't know.' Deeks dismissed, feeling stupid. 'It was grab bruise. I just wondered when he got it because it wasn't there the other night. It's no big deal.'

'Deeks.' Kensi stepped across his path when he moved to walk away. 'How did you know Daniel was stressed and emotionally drained, but not really sick?' She paused.

He didn't make a sound, nor showed any signs of trying to think of a response. Kensi was able to form a connection between Deeks' accurate guess and his reluctance to discuss the bruise on the boy's arm.

'You father?' Kensi whispered.

'It's nothing.' Deeks disregarded the topic. 'I over-reacted.'

'Okay.' Kensi accepted his words, despite not believing them.

He'd turned his back to her and headed towards the bed. Kensi didn't move, watching his retreating form until he stopped after a few steps. Somehow he knew she was still standing there, waiting.

'It just reminded me of then. The stress sickness, and the bruise.' Deeks admitted.

He tried to sound casual, as though he was talking of a time when he'd fallen off his bike rather than being hit by an abusive father.

Kensi acted as if she didn't notice his shift from confidence to vulnerability, even when a part of her wondered why he suddenly wanted to share those details with her. It was a subject he hinted at, but never really discussed. Kensi never pried, in worry of provoking painful memories for him while also respecting that it was a very personal matter for him.

Kensi paused when she heard movement down the hall. She suspected it wasn't Monty making his way to Daniel's room, as the sound was going in the opposite direction. She decided not to stop Deeks from talking, doubtful if the boy simply planned to use the bathroom or was momentarily wondering how he'd ended up in his bed.

'There were moments.' Deeks continued, unaware of what she'd noticed. 'Days, even, when we could almost believe he'd changed and things weren't going to get bad again. That maybe this time it will be okay, and we'd be a family. Other times it was just easier to pretend.'

'Daniel.' Kensi poked her head into the hallway, startling the child who had been trying to sneak towards their room. 'Go back to bed.' She instructed.

Daniel nodded, having received his confirmation that they were still there, then turned and hazardously retreated to his bedroom. Yawning, he crawled back under the covers and was asleep in seconds, with Monty joining him a moment later.

'I guess we should get some rest.' Deeks cleared his throat, and looked around for where he'd stored his clothes.

'Deeks.' Kensi stepped closer to him, making it harder for him to avoid her gaze. 'How bad was it?'

'He stabbed me with a broken bottle once.' Deeks stated, not entirely answering her query. 'I still have the scar.'

'Accidentally?' Kensi hoped.

She knew it hadn't been, by the way Deeks averted his gaze and didn't offer a retort. His reply hadn't entirely answered her question, but it left enough room for her to take an educated guess. Kensi almost wished she hadn't asked, and hadn't realised the extent of the suffering her partner must have gone through as a child. What had things been like for Deeks when he was Daniel's age? Had someone saved him, helped him, or let him know he wasn't on his own? The thought alone made her feel sad for her partner and friend.

'I'll never forget the day after.' Deeks added. 'He took me to the beach. We were there for hours, not really doing anything – we made sandcastles and stomped on them.' He sighed, frowning as though it confused him. 'It was probably the closest thing I had to a father.'

'How long did it last?' Kensi prompted, thinking there had to be a reason for Deeks to tell her so much now.

There was an underlining significance to the moment, and she was afraid to break it in case Deeks needed someone to listen and acknowledge.

'Until that night.' Deeks' tone changed, becoming darker and more emotional despite him doing his best to remain conversational. 'That was the night I shot him, when he was one drink away from killing my mum and me.'

'You had no choice.' Kensi said, placing a hand on his arm. 'You know that, right?'

'Yeah.' Deeks snorted, shaking his head.

He fell silent, and Kensi wasn't sure what she was meant to say or how she could help.

When she talked about her father, back before she'd had the answers she'd been searching for, Kensi rarely had the strength to mention it. Talking made her face it, and facing it reminded her it was real. When she could talk about it, nothing anyone said made it feel less real or easier to handle. At the same time, it was nice to know that someone had been there to listen.

'Did you ever talk about it?' Kensi wondered. 'To someone like Nate?'

Deeks lifted his gaze, his blues eyes dry yet spilling emotions she couldn't remember witnessing from him all at once. A smile parted his lips, though it was a sad one, and left Kensi feeling more confused about his abrupt need to tell her about his past in that particular moment.

'I'm talking to you.'

He'd spoken quietly, with a familiar demeanour yet heavy gaze.

Kensi felt her own emotions stir in the realisation of the meaning behind his words. She evaporated the remaining space between them by stepping forward to wrap her arms around him. Kensi hugged Deeks tightly, feeling his strong arms curl around her back in a returned gesture. Even so, it wasn't just in sad consideration of his past, or the shock and fear that had built on their doubts since the previous afternoon.

The two partners and friends embraced, comforted by the warmth and strength of the other.

It was for all the pain they'd endured recently and in the past, with the understanding that they didn't have to face it alone. There was more to Deeks than Kensi had originally suspected, and it was an odd thing to consider because she was already aware of knowing him better than anyone. How could she know Deeks the most, and yet still not truly know him? Perhaps the mystery was part of the journey – with each new portion of information she only understood him more, not cared any less.

The hug had started simple and symbolic, until Kensi heard Deeks inhale a breath that wasn't quite regular. It was slightly ragged and uncontrolled, as though he had fought a sniffle and kept his emotions at bay. His grip on her tightened, not uncomfortably but in a way that made the moment more intimate than a straightforward act of reassurance. Kensi closed her eyes, pressing her cheek to his, and breathed in his scent as they stood there. They felt like two metals melting into one, as their warmth was shared and their breathing became evenly matched.

They'd slept in the same bed many times before, and even kissed once or twice while undercover, yet the embrace they shared that night was the most intimate contact they'd developed. It sparked meaningful emotions and encouraged inner strength, though that's not how it will be remembered. It was one of those pure moments untouched by the cover they hid behind or the act they put on for others, and not just because it occurred in the safety of their own temporary residence.

The hug was personal, and heartfelt, yet it could only truly be described by what it was at the core, rather than just on the surface.

It was a turning point.

* * *

'Dammit!' Eric growled. He hit his palm against the side of the desk, which earned him a startled look from Nell.

'Whoa.' She commented, raising her eyebrows at his heightened frustration.

'Sorry.' Eric sighed, readjusting his glasses as he returned his glare upon the computer screen in front of him.

'You okay?' Nell checked.

'I will be.' Eric nodded tensely.

'Hey, Eric.' A tanned man with dark brown hair walked into Ops. 'Could you check the schedule for me? I need to know what time to be at the airport to pick up May Ellis tomorrow.'

'Sure.' Eric exhaled a long breath, and scrolled through the flight plans one more time. 'A little before one.' He answered, swerving in his chair to see who had spoken to him.

'You look surprised to see me, dude.' The man chuckled.

'Last I heard you were undercover in Arizona.'

'You two know each other?' Nell said in the form of a question, though the answer was quite of obvious as she observed their exchanges. She looked at their company again, wondering how she didn't know him if he worked with them and she'd been with the NCIS Special Operations team for over three years.

'Yeah.' Eric confirmed. 'This is Special Agent Nigel Sanny.'

'Oh.' Nell inched higher in her seat. 'In that case, we have met.'

'Yeah.' Nigel nodded, snickering. 'Monthly check-in, right? It's nice to meet you face-to-face, Nell Jones.'

'Likewise.' Nell nodded, while Eric glanced uncomfortably between them.

'We've got a lot of work to do.' Eric scowled and turned back around in his chair. 'Have you spoken to Hetty yet?'

'Uh, no.' Nigel shook his head. 'I've been afraid to.' He winced, though with amusement.

'And why would that be, Mr Sanny?' Questioned Hetty from behind him, startling Nigel and the others. 'I don't bite.'

'Jeez!' Nigel gasped, patting a hand to his chest. 'Uh, no reason.' He shrugged while fidgeting awkwardly on the spot.

'Perhaps you should join me in my office?' Hetty suggested. 'We have a lot of catching up to do.'

'Right. Sure. Yeah, I can do that.' Nigel gasped, looking over at Eric. 'I'll never get used to that.'

'She's a ninja.' Eric nodded with a smirk.

'No kidding.' Nigel stated.

'Today, Mr Sanny!' Hetty called from outside the room.

'I better go. If you see G, remind him he owes me twenty bucks.' Nigel waved and hurried from the room, his heart still racing from the shock.

He was about to descend the stairs when he almost bumped into Callen himself.

'Ten bucks.' Callen commented in rebuttal. 'I paid the other half of the bet. Hey, Nigel.' He grinned and reached to shake the other agent's hand in warm greeting.

'When did you do that?' Nigel snorted, grasping the offered hand tightly. 'It's good to see you, dude.'

'Yeah. You know, that time?' Callen shrugged.

'No, what time?' Nigel frowned, struggling to remember.

'The time, at the place.' Callen smirked. 'You'll figure it out. So how was the drug bust in Arizona?'

'Hot.' Nigel huffed. 'I missed the California beach every day. The big guy still around?'

'Sam?' Callen withheld a laugh. 'Yeah. I tried to get rid of him, but you know Sam.' He joked.

'Yeah.' Nigel replied. 'He owes me money too.'

'For what?' Sam asked. He walked along the upstairs corridor to join them, having just left the boxing area.

'The bet.' Nigel reminded him.

'Oh. That.' Sam glanced at Callen. 'Didn't we pay him, that time?'

'I tried to tell him.' Callen shrugged. 'Nice seeing you, buddy. Don't keep Hetty waiting.'

'Yeah, good to see you again.' Sam added, patting Nigel's shoulder as each they passed him on either side.

'What time?' Nigel called after them.

Rolling his eyes, he turned around and shrugged it off for now. Admirably, Nigel managed to bite back a yelp when he saw Hetty standing right in front of him, giving him a fixed stare. It made him second-guess how good it felt to be back after being away for so long.

'What bet did we lose?' Callen asked Sam as they headed into Ops.

'I don't know.' Sam frowned. 'I don't remember losing any bet to Nigel. That guy is the worse bet-taker ever in the history of worst bet-takers.'

'Damn good agent, though.' Callen nodded.

'Damn good.' Sam agreed, then turned to Eric. 'You found anything yet?'

'We're working on it.' Eric said through clenched teeth.

Nell decided to remain quiet, though her gaze darted to her partner once or twice in professional wariness.

'We still need to find those two cars.' Callen sighed. 'And the truck that blocked the view of the kidnapping. When did you say May Ellis lands in Los Angeles?'

'Okay!' Eric growled and halted his typing, reaching to pull off his glasses.

He swerved recklessly in his chair to glare at the stunned pair.

'This is not easy, alright? We are doing everything we can to find those vehicles, as well as find out where the Ellis' went after the kidnapping, and track any possible suspects associated with Lieutenant Ellis. In addition to monitoring any activity at the safe cover house where Daniel Ellis is or the Pentagon where the Lieutenant worked.' He detailed in a rushed, annoyed voice. 'We are scanning every ATM camera, traffic camera, dashboard camera, Taxi cam, patrol camera, cell phone, and everything else we possibly can to try and locate anyone or anything you need to proceed with the case. But we do not have all the answers!'

'Okay.' Callen said casually. He acknowledged Eric was cracking under the extensive, prolonged pressure being placed on himself and Nell. 'That's all you had to say.'

'You feel better now?' Sam added.

'Yes.' Eric realised.

'Wow.' Nell commented. 'Bad-ass.'

'You think so?' Eric blushed, peering at her with a smile.

Nell looked away and returned to her computer, denying him any confirmation. Eric glanced at the others to see if they thought his little outburst was tough as well. Their looks were more along the lines of concealed laughter rather than signs of being impressed, which only made him furthermore unsure. Eric he put his glasses back on and ducked his head with embarrassment, swerving around in his chair to continue working.

'Let us know if you find anything.' Callen added, partially in teasing, as he turned to leave the room.

Eric stared straight ahead with a dead-panned expression and sighed. It was passing moments like that in which he wondered if his life would have been easier if he'd become an agent rather than the computer technician.

It was a thought that never crossed the mind of Nigel Sanny.

He couldn't imagine being anything else apart from an NCIS special agent, and yet he always felt minimally secure about his job whenever he had to sit across from Hetty Lange.

'You disappoint me, Mr Sanny.' Hetty said, seated comfortably behind her desk. 'I told you, if you ever needed back-up then you should call me.'

'I had it under control.' Nigel insisted.

'You were over-powered by eight men with guns.' Hetty matched his frown with more intimidation than he could ever muster. 'It's a miracle you survived.'

'Huh.' Nigel glanced upwards and recounted the events. 'Honestly, I didn't count.' He sighed and bowed his head. He felt guilty in the way a child did after being caught hiding a broken vase under the carpet.

'You should have called me.' Hetty repeated. 'But, nevertheless, it was a job well done.'

'Thank you.' Nigel nodded, feeling marginally relieved. 'Does this mean we're cool about the not calling you thing?'

'No.' Hetty said plainly, narrowing her eyes. 'You need a partner, Mr Sanny.'

'I do not need a partner!' Nigel denied. His tone alone suggested it was a topic of frequent mentioning on Hetty's behalf, and equal objection on his.

'Are you caught up to date with the Ellis case?' Hetty abruptly changed the subject, confusing him for a brief moment.

'Uh, oh...yeah. Nate updated me.' Nigel nodded. 'I'll be picking May Ellis up from the airport in the afternoon tomorrow. I'll take her to the boathouse and wait for...uh, who exactly?'

'Special Agent Kensi Blye and her partner, Detective Marty Deeks.' Hetty said formally. 'You remember Ms Blye, I assume? She was your partner once.'

'Yeah.' Nigel snorted. 'Only for a couple of months, after...' He lowered his gaze and avoided hers.

'Are you afraid?' Hetty asked. 'That any partner you are paired with will not last for more than a year at the most?'

'Yeah.' Nigel admitted. 'None of them stuck, Hetty.' He looked up at her, his deep green eyes sad and equally stubborn.

'Sullivan's death affected all of us, Mr Sanny.' Hetty sighed. 'You need to move on.'

'And Renko?' Nigel shook his head. 'Hunter? I'm bad luck.'

'Ms Blye is still alive and well.' Hetty pointed out. 'You will transport May Ellis to the boathouse tomorrow - that is all.'

'What?' Nigel argued. 'You're benching me? No, I want to help! A kid's parents are missing - this is a big case. You'll need all the help you can get.'

'So do you.' Hetty said firmly. 'We are no closer to solving this case than we were two days ago. If you want to be a part of it, I suggest you agree to a work partnership. No one should face anything alone, Mr Sanny.'

'Fine.' Nigel grumbled and slouched back in his seat. 'But if they get killed, that's not on me.'

* * *

Friday morning at the safe cover house was not met with the usual routine Kensi and Deeks had already begun to put into place. As the sun started to rise over Los Angeles, no one at the house got up to have breakfast or prepare for their day of school/work. Monty didn't start barking or run to the downstairs window to watch the neighbourhood through the glass. The interior of the house remained quiet and still, as Daniel continued to sleep under the mounds of sheets without any occurrence of being abruptly woken from his slumber.

Kensi and Deeks were both used to getting up very early, for different and similar reasons, but after only a week they had become comfortable in their not-so-strange surroundings. Neither had brought their alarm clock with them, so they'd only relied on Monty or previously instilled instincts to wake up when they needed to.

And on Friday morning, no such thing happened.

The reason for their sudden oversleeping was not just a result of becoming familiar with their shared residence, but also the amount of comfort they currently experienced. The bed was always soft and cosy, yet they'd respectfully kept their distance from each other the best they could. It prevented awkwardness and unspeakable temptation, both which were no longer a factor once they were equally asleep. While pretending to be a couple, Kensi and Deeks were still ultimately just partners – or so they insisted.

There was no_ "thing"_, they would say, and yet the picture in the main bedroom that Friday morning not only said otherwise, but was completely off the reservation.

Deeks was asleep on his back, complying to the usual boundaries of his side of the bed, whereas Kensi rested closely against his side. He had one hand tucked under the pillow, leaving his exposed elbow in a pointed position, to which Kensi had slid over during the night to use as her pillow, and her left hand was reached over to rest against his chest. Her legs were bent and in sight, likely from kicking aside the blankets hours earlier, whereas Deeks remained partially covered by the remainder of the blankets from his stomach downwards.

Feeling restless, Kensi frowned slightly in her sleep and straightened her legs, moving one foot to loop over his nearest ankle. Sighing contently, her eyes slowly opened and the source of her comfort was revealed. Withholding a gasp, so she didn't wake Deeks, Kensi inched back and rolled over onto her own side of the bed. She lay there, on her back, and couldn't believe the state she had woken in. Her portion of the bed felt cold and strange, which made her force back a creeping desire to resume her curled up spot intimately close to Deeks.

She checked the time and was startled to realise they had to get Daniel up for school, otherwise he was going to be late. In her discomfort, Kensi left Deeks where he was and wandered down the hallway to Daniel's room. Concealing a yawn with the back of her hand, Kensi peered into the bedroom to see both dog and boy were curled up on the bed and fast asleep.

Monty sat up and watched her, then whined and didn't look eager to move.

'Daniel.' Kensi reached the bed and gave the boy a light nudge. 'Time to get up.'

'Mum?' Daniel uttered tiredly.

The boy rolled onto his back and opened his eyes.

'Kensi.' He corrected, looking away. 'Okay.'

'Okay.' Kensi repeated, but had already taken a step back.

She quickly left the room and stood in the hallway, pressing her back against the wall. Kensi stood there for a moment, reminding herself that the title the child had spoken was not for her. What Daniel had just said would never be for her. Composing herself, she looked towards the open doorway of the bedroom she shared with Deeks. They were getting too comfortable, Kensi worried. They'd been at the safe cover house for almost a week now, and in such a short time a lot had happened.

It wasn't about babysitting anymore.

Kensi cared about Daniel; she worried he would get hurt, she made sure he didn't lack something he needed (food, clean clothes, entertainment etc), and she even reached the point where she enjoyed his company. It unsettled her because not only was Kensi concerned about what would happen when the case was over, but she also hadn't even noticed the shift. It felt as though she'd cared for him and tended to his care from the very first second they'd met, rather than the child had gone from an inconvenient part of her job to...what? What was he to her now? She liked to think they were friends, yet Kensi remained uncertain and confused.

'There you are, Sunshine!' Deeks jerked Kensi from her thoughts, as he walked out of their bedroom.

He saw her heavy expression and paused, but had no chance to say anything when Daniel left his room with a dark object in his hand. The boy was dressed for school, yet his hair was a mess of wayward strands. Kensi didn't want to remain standing under the scrutiny of Deeks' concern - so she did the first thing she thought would distract her, and at the same time involved the exact cause of her unsettled state; she took care of Daniel.

'Come on, kiddo.' Kensi prodded the boy towards the stairs when he'd stopped in the hallway. She used one of the many names Deeks had for the boy, which was another first on her bahalf.

'Why does he call you Sunshine?' Daniel wondered, looking up at Kensi as they walked down the stairs together.

'Why don't you ask him?' Kensi replied, not entirely certain though she also had never said Deeks could continuously call her that.

Still, it was better than_ "Fern_".

She almost bumped into the boy when he stopped suddenly to wait for Deeks, who was sleepily following behind Kensi. She inhaled a breath to prevent saying anything, then walked around the boy and headed to the kitchen.

'Why?' Daniel asked Deeks, who had been listening in to the conversation.

'Why do I call her Sunshine?' Deeks repeated. 'Well...' He looked over at Kensi with a smile, aware that she was pretending not to have any interest in what he said.

'Why?' Daniel asked again, tugging on Deeks' shirt when he didn't answer right away.

'Her smile.' Deeks sighed, looking away from Kensi. 'When she smiles, it lights up the room. When she smiles at you, it's real. Like sunshine.'

'Oh.' Daniel said with disappointment.

He thought about the weird answer and looked over at Kensi, trying to understand the meaning of what Deeks had told him.

'Really?' Kensi asked Deeks when he stood beside her to make a cup of coffee.

He didn't comment, only flashed her a grin and winked.

Deeks moved to busy himself with feeding Monty, while Kensi directed Daniel to the table. The entire time it took for Daniel to eat his cereal, Kensi was upstairs locating a suitable brush and comb. Deeks offered the boy a sympathetic expression when he realised Kensi's intentions. Deeks took the bowl from the table, and kept his distance from his partner in case she got any crazy ideas about his own hair.

Daniel saw the comb and grumbled, directing his attention back to the object in his hands. Kensi swerved the chair so it was facing the kitchen rather than the table, and began to comb the boy's hair. It was a lot like a straighter version of Deeks' hair when they'd first met Daniel, but since then his blonde locks had become wild and disorganised. Kensi intended to fix that, as a distraction and because she found it a bit bothersome with how alike the boy and man were. She also felt it was part of her duty of care, and Kensi was determined to do everything she was supposed to to be rid of her _"not good with kids"_ reputation.

'Tell me about the bruise.' Kensi said.

She remembered the conversations she'd had with her mother while getting her hair brushed when she'd been a small child. It had been the time when they'd talked the most, and yet Kensi was only briefly aware of mimicking the exact same method Julia had used.

'I did.' Daniel stated. 'Billy Kruger gave it to me. He wouldn't let me go.'

'What did you do?' Kensi continued.

Deeks discreetly watched on with interest, wondering what Kensi was up to, while he flipped through a magazine he hadn't finished the night before. They were both facing him, yet neither seemed to notice his presence, so Deeks assumed he shouldn't interrupt their moment.

'I shoved him.' Daniel ducked his head with shame.

'Yes, you did.' Kensi nodded, frowning when his movement took his hair out of reach. She pulled his shoulder back lightly and resumed brushing. 'Did you hurt him?'

'No.' Daniel spun around, making Kensi winced again when the comb slipped from her hand. 'I didn't, I swear! He fell a bit, but he was fine.'

'Okay then.' Kensi nodded. 'If you did nothing wrong, why didn't you tell us what happened?'

'I forgot.' Daniel shrugged, turning around in his seat while Kensi crouched to look for the comb.

Kensi was too busy trying to locate the comb and she didn't see the child's face. Deeks did, and he could see the boy was lying. Daniel was probably embarrassed, Deeks guessed and still didn't intervene.

'What happens to our stuff when we leave?' Daniel wondered slowly.

'We take it with us.' Kensi answered automatically, still bent to look for the comb while Deeks politely forced himself not to stare at her butt.

'What if I forget something?' Daniel continued. 'Or what if something gets left behind?'

'You'll leave before us.' Kensi said. 'Deeks and I will check the house over one last time before we leave, just to make sure. Don't worry, you'll get everything back.'

Kensi huffed as she re-emerged with a silent scowl, wondering how the comb had just vanished. Sighing, she looked towards the table and gave Daniel a nudge.

'Hand me the brush.' She asked.

Daniel fiddled with the hand-held camera on his lap and looked up long enough to get the brush. He held it over his shoulder for Kensi to take, then stared back at the lens of the camera he had aimed in his own direction.

'What's that?' Kensi asked

She wanted to continue the flow of conversation, as it was the longest she and Daniel had ever talked to each other without Deeks being involved. Kensi gave her partner a short glance and realised he was giving them their moment, which she appreciated and offered him a pointed look to let him know.

Daniel rolled his eyes at her question, as anyone should be able to see it was a camera, but he knew that's not what she'd meant. He bit his bottom lip and considered his answer.

'A gift.' Daniel told her while she brushed his hair until it was straight again, which also moved it out of his face. 'It's new. I never got to use it properly.'

'Oh. Well, it's nice.' Kensi tried to remain friendly before moving on to a rather important subject matter. 'You know, NCIS has invited your grandmother to Los Angeles for a visit. If you want to, you could go see her after school. I'm sure she'd love to see you.'

'No.' Daniel's face creased into a ridged frown. 'She won't want to see me.'

'You don't know that.' Kensi encouraged, while Deeks watched the boy's face with serious suspicion. 'She hasn't seen you since you were very little.'

'I don't care.' Daniel insisted. 'I don't want to. You can't make me, I'll-I'll scream. I'll yell so loud no one will want to be near us.' He feebly threatened, to which Kensi found annoying and Deeks hid a smile of brief amusement.

'Okay.' Kensi gave in. 'If you really don't want to see her, then you don't have to.'

'I don't.' Daniel confirmed.

He turned his camera around and glanced at Deeks, seeing the Detective had lowered his gaze again. While Kensi was distracted with brushing his hair, Daniel pressed the record button of his camera and turned it back around, adjusting it in a way he guessed would be able to film both himself and Kensi. He was getting bored, and wondered why brushing his hair was taking so long. It wasn't the only thing taking a long time, though. With a sigh of misery, Daniel looked downwards and knew he had to ask.

The question was burning inside him.

'Kensi?' He asked softly, catching Deeks' attention as well.

'Yeah?' She asked, also noticing the significant change in the child's tone.

'Will they come back for me?'

Kensi and Deeks shared a look, knowing who the child was referring to yet neither had an answer to accurately give. The situation turned very serious with that single question posed by the eight-year-old boy, who was still without his parents even after a week of NCIS putting in their best efforts to locate the parents.

'I mean, do you think they want to?' Daniel rephrased when he didn't receive an answer.

'I'm sure they want to, Daniel.' Kensi said sadly. 'They're your parents.'

'So, will they?' Daniel repeated. 'If they can, will they come back for me?'

'I think they will.' Kensi risked saying.

She remembered what Nate had said, and in the long run she felt her words were the right ones to say. She was giving the child no certainty, and yet reassurance was what he needed. The fact he'd asked her meant a lot to Kensi, and she failed to notice the look on Deeks' face. Suddenly, things had been reversed. Daniel worshipped him already, that much was clear, and yet now it was Kensi who was getting the questions and the trust.

Deeks was glad, and at the same time felt a little cast to the side when it mattered most.

'You're their son, Daniel.' Kensi continued. 'They love you. Anyone who loves you will always do their best to come back for you, no matter what. Especially your mum and dad.'

Daniel stared into the lens of his camera, then looked away, thinking about what Kensi had just told him. The boy didn't notice she'd stopped brushing his hair until her shadow fell over him, and he looked up at her.

'It's okay.' Kensi said softly, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder. 'You haven't lost them. We just don't know where they are. When NCIS finds your mum and dad, everything will be okay. I'm sure they're worried about you and missing you just as much as you are them.'

In a flash of movement from Daniel, the entire situation drastically changed.

The boy aggressively whacked her hand from his shoulder and set a deep scowl in her direction. She was startled and took a step back, while Deeks walked around the counter to see what was going on.

'You think you know everything there is to know, but you don't!' Daniel shouted at Kensi, then jumped off the seat and ran from the room.

He bolted up the stairs to retrieve his schoolbag from his bedroom and dumped his camera on his bed as he did so. The boy slammed his door and stood still to calm himself before he'd have to face his protectors again – preferably only Deeks.

'Kens-' Deeks went to say, looking at her though he could only see her back.

'I don't know why I even try.' Kensi said in clear frustration, keeping her hurt face from view as she turned and left the room as well.

Deeks remained standing near the kitchen, confused and uncertain. He knew Daniel's outburst had upset Kensi, though he didn't think she wanted comfort right now.

Neither did Daniel.

Deeks had the feeling of missing something, as though a thread had snapped without him noticing until everything else unravelled along with it.

~ LB ~

'He hates me.' Kensi said with defeat, leaning against the cold stone border around a window at work. 'Daniel hates me.'

'No, he doesn't.' Nate assured Kensi, standing across from her. 'There's more to his irrational rejection of you. The level of bonding you have already established with the boy should enable you both to overcome any initial dislike.'

'Then why did he do that?' Kensi frowned. 'What did I do wrong?'

'Nothing.' Nate promised sincerely. 'There is an underlining cause here. Daniel likes you, cares about you, and trusts you almost as much as he does Deeks.'

'Yeah. Right.' Kensi scoffed, rolling her eyes in disbelief.

'There's something about you that triggers a fear or lack of emotional stability for Daniel on a level he's too young to deal with, so he acts out in the only way he knows how to.' Nate reasoned. 'He's probably as frustrated by his outbursts as you are.'

'What do I do?' Kensi wanted to know, hoping someone could steer her in the right direction. 'It's so easy for Deeks. One smile, and the kid loves him.' She grumbled and crossed her arms defensively, which Nate noticed with slight amusement.

'Keep trying.' Nate advised. 'Let Daniel know you're not going to give up. He needs someone to remain strong and consistent so he can feel secure. It's only been one week.'

'And how much longer is it going to be?' Kensi asked. 'What if we don't ever find his parents? Or what if we do, and they're dead? What will happen to Daniel?'

'The game of "what if" is extremely dangerous.' Nate sighed. 'It exposes all of our fears and insecurities at once. You have to stay positive, for your sake and Daniel's.'

There was a long pause.

Nate narrowed his eyes with suspicion, as he watched Kensi drop her arms and the anger began to completely fade. The recent outburst from Daniel was just the beginning. Nate saw it now, once her frustration had dissolved - there was something else eating away at her. Kensi had her defensive walls up, and she was far too stubborn or strong to allow herself to be vulnerable when she wasn't in control of a situation, and yet Nate knew her too well.

He knew her enough to see there was something else, and it wasn't going to be discussed with him.

As part of his job, Kensi had told Nate things she hadn't said to anyone else (except, maybe Deeks), but this wasn't something she was going to share and he respected that. He wasn't worried because Kensi would talk about it, just not to him. He looked up when he saw Deeks approaching them, a smile passing over Nate's lips as he watched the interactions between the two partners.

When Kensi left to talk to Hetty, Deeks remained behind in her place.

He watched her leave, then faced Nate with an oddly meditative expression. He expected Deeks to ask if Kensi was okay, but he didn't say a word. Nate and Deeks had perhaps the most relaxed intercommunication when Nate was doing his job, whereas many other members of the team knew talking to Nate was usually a tense moment because of the things they shared. Even if it helped. It was just one of the aspects about his profession that Nate had accepted, and yet not once had he received that same reluctance and dread from Deeks.

It didn't make sense to him. While he and Deeks also hadn't really talked because the Detective hadn't been at NCIS as long as the others, Nate knew Deeks had a very rough childhood and continued on to have less-than-ideal experiences with other members of the LAPD.

Nate was patient. He had to be, or else no one would ever talk to him when things became too much. He'd watched Deeks, studied him even, and bid his time. His psychological talks with Deeks were short and far between, and each time the Detective gave the impression of getting things off his chest then moving on. It was a breath of fresh air, and he never showed much reluctance or worry regarding any _"session"_ he had with Nate.

Even so, the expression that crossed over Deeks' face, while he watched Kensi walk away, was something Nate simply could not ignore.

Not this time.

'Marty?'

Deeks blinked and turned to look at Nate with surprise. He wasn't used to people he worked with calling him by his first name, and he was accustomed to "Deeks", which made Nate's method of catching his attention even more effective.

'I'm fine.' Deeks said. 'I'm worried about my partner. And Daniel. But me? I'm good.'

'Are you?' Nate wasn't convinced.

'Yeah.' Deeks nodded adamantly. 'We talked about the Monty stuff. Nothing else has happened since then. Not really.'

'This morning happened.' Nate reasoned.

'To them.' Deeks insisted, on edge for the first notable time while talking to Nate.

'But you were there.' Nate continued, knowing Deeks wouldn't evade him for much longer.

'Ha, okay.' Deeks nodded, a bit annoyed yet trying to play over it with humour. 'Okay. I get that this is your job, and you're great at it - so no disrespect, but I don't have anything to say. I've got a job to do. It's simple: save the kid, catch the bad guys, and solve the case.'

'The parents.' Nate said firmly.

'What?'

'Save the parents.' Nate elaborated. 'Daniel Ellis is safe. Your first instinct is to protect the child, above all else?'

'He can't protect himself.' Deeks frowned. 'It's my job.'

There was a moment of quiet, to which Deeks averted his gaze and Nate considered what had been said in a very reluctant tone. He'd heard about the bruise on Daniel's arm, and the cause, yet he hadn't figured out until then that perhaps it had an affect on Deeks in ways it hadn't for Kensi. He'd had hints and suspicions, and now to realise what he wished he hadn't - Nate felt sad for his co-worker and friend.

'Could you, protect yourself?' Nate asked carefully. 'Did anyone save you?'

'That's what this is about?' Deeks scoffed. Despite his tone, his eyes showed traces of more defined emotions than the casualness he tried to display. 'How do you even know that?'

'Like you said, I'm good at my job.' Nate said patiently. 'You haven't answered my question.'

'I did what I had to.' Deeks frowned.

'We all have things in our past who have shaped who we are, yet we don't want to face.' Nate said. 'You're not alone, Marty.'

Surprising Nate, Deeks ducked his head and chuckled. It was an unusual reaction, and at first Nate felt he'd overlooked something, until Deeks returned his gaze and spoke in a rather genuine way. He seemed troubled, but Nate was pleased to see the trust Deeks demonstrated in ways Kensi had to build up to. They each had layers of shields to protect themselves from being hurt, though Deeks' tended to fall faster than Kensi's – but only if one knew what to look for, and Nate fortunately did.

'You know the first time I realised that?' Deeks asked rhetorically. 'It was when Hetty let me pursue the case the LAPD had given up on. The same case where Callen and the others showed up to back me up. But, really? It was her.'

'Kensi?' Nate guessed.

'I was gonna shoot the guy, and I would have, but I heard her.' Deeks shared. 'Kensi drew the line, and I would have crossed it if it hadn't been for her. Going to law school, and becoming a cop, it was my way to save people. I was needed, and being a cop is who I am.'

'He threatened that.' Nate understood. 'He threatened what you stood for, and threw it in your face.'

'You asked if anyone saved me.' Deeks sighed, looking downwards. 'Kensi. She saved me that day, and she was the first person I didn't owe for it.'

'You need to talk about this.' Nate encouraged.

He wanted to dig deeper with Deeks' previous belief that any time someone helped him, he had to owe them back. He'd barely noted this previously, and had a higher suspicion where it may have stemmed from. Deeks was still trying to overcome it as well, and Nate wanted to help.

Deeks looked up and offered him a calm expression, one of peace and lack of troubling emotions. Nate could not comprehend the ease in which Deeks handled their sessions and wondered if he wasn't the only one Deeks had to talk to on a personal or emotional level. The man recovered too quickly, as though his troubles had already been put to ease.

He hated talking about them and it didn't evoke happy memories, but Deeks could handle it.

'I already have.' Deeks stated.

Nate watched the Detective glance through the window beside them, and realised it was true. Somehow, regardless of all the things he had just learned, Nate knew Deeks hadn't been referring to him.

'Hey.' Callen intervened, walking up the stairs nearby. 'Shouldn't you be getting Daniel from school?' He asked Deeks.

'What?' Deeks asked, baffled, and looked at his watch. 'Crap.' He uttered and dashed off to find Kensi.

Callen shook his head with enjoyment, and bypassed a thoughtful Nate on his way to the Ops center. He spotted Sam waiting for him with a disgruntled expression, and sighed. Callen looked to the main screen at the image of May Ellis from years ago, preparing to resume the case and hopefully take a significant leap towards solving it.

Or, more importantly, locate Daniel Ellis' parents before it was too late.

'Last minute fact-checking?' Callen guessed.

'She could hold the key to everything.' Sam confirmed. 'We gotta play this one right.'

'Is she at the boathouse?' Callen wanted to know.

'Sanny just dropped her off.' Eric confirmed. 'He's with her now, waiting for you.'

'Refresh us.' Callen instructed. 'What do we know about May Ellis?'

'Everything, or the recent stuff?' Eric prompted.

'The useful stuff.' Callen requested. 'Anything that might help us.'

'The short version or the long version?'

'Short version, Eric.' Sam glowered.

'Right.' Eric gulped and faced his computer screen, bringing up information and images on the main screen while he spoke. 'May Ellis, 62 years old, has never been married. She's the mother of Lieutenant Michael James Ellis, and grandmother of Daniel. She's lived in various places of Florida most of her life – Brooklyn before that.'

'Her twin sister, April, died in a car accident when she was sixteen.' Nell added. 'Their mother was also killed. May was in hospital with a head injury for three weeks. Their father broke his collarbone and was pretty bruised, but he lived to raise May until she graduated High School.'

'This is the short version?' Sam whispered to Callen while Eric talked in the background about May going to college in Florida on a scholarship, yet decided to persue nursing.

'It is for them.' Callen answered quietly.

'She was engaged to a sailor, Michael Williams.' Eric continued. 'He died at sea before their son, Michael Ellis, was born.'

'Eric.' Callen sighed. 'Shorter version. Start with Daniel.'

'Daniel was born almost three years after Jasmine Boyer and Michael Ellis married.' Eric said with a huff, not pleased to skip over the information they'd spent quite a while gathering to ensure NCIS had a complete history.

'After Daniel was born, there was a significant spike in communication between lieutenant Michael Ellis and his mother, May Ellis.' Nell added.

'The doting grandmother.' Sam commented.

'Maybe.' Callen said. There was no way to really check what had been discussed or said during the constant phone-calls during that time.

'Then, in January four years ago, everything stopped.' Nell continued. 'No calls, no visits that we were able to check, and just...nothing. It was like they didn't even know each other. A week later, the family moved to Los Angeles.'

'May Ellis has had no further contact with her son, daughter-in-law, or grandson since.' Eric finished. 'No Birthday cards, phone calls, or anything.'

'Let's find out why.' Callen nodded to Sam, turning to lead the way out of the Ops center.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and crossed to the bullpen, not listening to the exchange behind him - Nate joined them with the intention of tagging along. Callen was distracted by Hetty, who was sitting at her desk with a cup of tea in front of her. The sight wasn't at all unusual on the surface, except on either side of her were piles of files. Even from where he stood, Callen could see the red "classified" labels on the top and around the edges. There were six stacked in front of Hetty, who was busy arguing on the phone in a language Callen didn't know.

Something was certainly going on.

'G?' Sam spoke behind him.

'Yeah.' Callen said slowly, still watching Hetty. 'Yeah, I'm coming.'

* * *

He remained standing, with the cool city air sweeping his dark hair around his face, as his brown eyes stared into the distance.

The moment was calm, as the people filling the Los Angeles street continued about their business all around him. People called cabs or boarded buses, others talked on their phones or to their friends, as the man remained still amongst it all. Behind him was a cafe where he'd be refilling a coffee once every hour since late that morning. He wore a dark suit and had a newspaper tucked under his arm, though it was outdated. The man was a solid statue within a storm of activity, his gaze fixed and serious on a single sight far across from him.

And, finally, he looked away to answer the high-toned rumble of his phone. He slowly raised it to his ear, his eyes now attentive to every aspect of his immediate surrounding.

'Hello?' He asked in a firm, deep tone.'Yes.' The man answered calmly, listening carefully to what the caller was saying. 'I'm there now.'

_'What should I call you?' _His male caller questioned, his voice thick with an accent.

'Ian.' The man said. 'It is the only name anyone knows. Use it, but when necessary.'

He hung up and walked towards the intersection a little to his left. Passing a trash bin, Ian dropped his phone into it and crossed the road. With the ocean horizon to his right, he walked along the street with a tall, composed posture. There was a bus stop at the end, which he paused to wait at.

Ian stood beside the seats, with only an elderly couple for company and a tanned college student who was distracted by the rock music he pounded into his ears through his Ipod. The bus arrived in less than a minute, and Ian boarded. He sat at the very back, looking to his left through the window at the passing streets. He got off at the first stop, several minutes later, and crossed another street to a vastly green park. He no longer had the newspaper with him, having purposely left it behind on the bus seat.

His dark eyes scanned the area of the park.

Moving to sit on a bench, Ian kept his gaze casual though his attention was extremely focused on every detail he observed. Reaching into the pocket of his jacket, he lifted out a long-lens camera, and checked his watch. Across the pond was a woman with strawberry blonde hair tied up into a reasonably short ponytail - she wore a tight pink tank top, and high pale blue shorts, as well as running shoes. The woman was his primary interest, as Ian discreetly snapped photos of her every movement while the woman jogged down the dirt track on the other side of the pond. She exhaled and paused at a seat, lifting a leg up to re-tie her shoelaces. When she looked around, Ian lowered his camera enough to make it look as though he was taking pictures of the numerous ducks swimming around in the pond, being fed by a nearby man and his small son.

The woman checked her pulse, then the time, and resumed jogging.

Ian continued to take photos until she had left his line of sight. Reaching into his pocket again, he got out another phone and placed his camera on the space of seat beside him. With his hands free to text as quickly as he needed to, Ian tapped away at the buttons and rose from the bench. He pocketed the phone, then grabbed his camera. Giving the park one final glance, Ian turned and left. He arrived at the road and peered both ways before crossing. A red car screeched to a halt at the curb, and Ian didn't need to verify the driver before he got into the front passenger seat.

Ian slipped on a pair of sunglasses while the car, without hesitation, increased speed and vanished into the mass of Los Angeles traffic.

~ LB ~

Sam and Callen left Special Agent Nigel Sanny in the main area of the boat shed, to go over the paperwork he'd been given by Hetty, as the pair headed for the interrogation room nearby. While they stepped into the room to greet the elderly lady, May Ellis, Nate also entered the boat shed and moved to sit beside Nigel so he could clearly observe the incident within the interrogation room.

'It's wonderful to meet you!' May greeted the pair with a smile. 'You gentlemen must be Calvin and Dan.' She said, reseating after standing long enough to shake their hands.

'Callen and Sam.' Callen corrected her. 'Did Agent Sanny tell you why you're here?'

'Sanny?' May repeated with a frown, then realised that was the name of the other man she'd been talking to earlier. 'Oh, no. No, I don't know why NCIS wanted me to come all the way here just to talk to me. I do own a phone, you know, though I don't always use it.'

'What was she like?' Nate asked Nigel, who was trying to read over his paperwork but kept glancing at the screen instead.

'She's like most old ladies.' Nigel shrugged. 'Friendly, talks too much, and doesn't have the best memory. She talked a lot about her time as a nurse with enough details, but she's shockingly terrible at recalling names. No matter how many times I corrected her, she kept calling me _"Sunny"_. It was annoying.' He huffed.

'That might be because of her age.' Nate said, not sounding convinced. 'Or from the head injury she suffered as a child when her twin sister was killed.'

'Why did you have to tell me that?' Nigel whined. 'Can't just one person we deal with have lived a happy life without something painful in their past? I was happy thinking of her as a harmless old lady who had no idea why NCIS had summoned her halfway across the country, and decided to treat it as a mini-holiday. Then you say things like that, and my happy little fantasy is ruined.'

'We all have something painful in our past, Nigel.' Nate commented seriously, still watching the screen.

'I know.' Nigel said darkly, his gaze sinking downwards to the file spread open in front of him. 'But I was content with my denial. Don't ruin it with facts.'

'When was the last time you spoke to your son?' Callen asked May.

'Oh, goodness.' May frowned, thinking for a moment. 'It must be four years now. Yes, I'm sure it was at least that.'

'And he never called you, not once?' Callen prodded for more information. 'That didn't seem strange to you?'

'It was a hard decision.' May said sadly. 'But it's for the best. He did it to keep his family safe. That's all I want, for them to be safe.'

'Safe from who?' Sam asked.

'They never said.' May sighed.

'Do you recognise this?' Callen asked. He slid a photograph, of the teddy bear found at the kidnapping scene, across the table.

'Why, yes.' May nodded, staring intently at it. 'I gave this to Noah. Where did you get this, Agent Calvin?'

'Noah?' Sam repeated.

'My grandson.' May told them. 'Why do you have a picture of it?'

'You mean Daniel?' Callen sighed. After getting his hopes up regarding the interview, it was hard to accept that any name the woman gave them would essentially be useless. 'It was found during an investigation and we're trying to find out as much as we can about it.'

'Oh.' May frowned, confused. 'Well, my grandmother made it and passed it down to each generation – to my mother, then to me. I kept it in storage, but when my little grandson was born I simply had to give it to him. He adores that bear.' She smiled fondly, touching the surface of the photo.

'Speaking of storage...' Callen continued. 'Did your son, Michael, ever mention having a storage container?'

'A storage container?' May repeated. 'No. And I can't imagine why he would need one; not here in Los Angeles.'

'Why's that?' Sam wondered.

'Well, because he didn't take much with him when he moved.' May shared. 'They barely even took enough clothes to get by. Almost all of Noah's belongings are still in my own personal storage back at home. They never called about it or picked them up, so I assumed they bought new belongings.'

Sam and Callen shared a look. They each suspected the move might have been intended as temporary or short at first, and then was extended. Either way, if the Ellis family seemed to have a plan to return to Florida, what held them back? Was it because of the danger their family was in, or was it more than that?

'Did your son or daughter-in-law say anything about the move?' Callen pressed. 'Even something small?'

'Hmm.' May went quiet as she looked at the table between them.

She concentrated hard on recalling the event, though it happened four years ago and her memory was not the best.

'Yes.' She finally looked up. 'There was something about needing two moving trucks. I remember thinking it was strange – all they had were a few bags and just about every sheet they ever owned. They didn't even take their furniture.'

'Did you ask Michael about it?' Callen prompted.

'I didn't see him.' May said. 'We'd said our goodbyes by then. Kyle had stopped by for a few final things – he's the one who told me about the trucks.'

'Kyle?' Sam sighed, certain it wasn't the actual name with May's poor recollection of them.

'Yes, I've known that boy for all his life.' May smiled. 'He is very close to my son – I'm sure Kyle spent more time sleeping over in our house than he did in his own bed.' She chuckled at the fond memories. 'They both served their country together too.'

'When was the last time you heard from...Kyle?' Callen asked.

'A little over a year ago.' May nodded. 'I don't think he's spoken to my son since then. They had a bit of a fight before the move.' She shook her head with disapproval.

'Thank you.' Callen said, standing. 'We appreciate the information you've given us, the for travelling all this way.'

'Anything to help.' May nodded. 'But, Agent Calvin, what is this about? Is my son okay?'

'It's just few loose ends.' Sam said, not wanting to worry her until they knew more. 'We'll be in touch.'

'Okay.' May exhaled and looked downwards, already worrying about whatever it was they weren't telling her.

Callen and Sam left the interrogation room and joined the other pair, who had been observing the live footage of the interview. Nigel had abandoned his paperwork, yet looked more bored than anything, whereas Nate continued to stare at the screen with a thoughtful expression.

'May I?' Nate requested.

'Sure.' Callen shrugged. 'I don't know how much more we can get out of her.'

'I do.' Nate nodded. 'She never refers to her son by name, probably in a trained effort to protect him. Yet she freely mentions her grandson by name.'

'Not the right name.' Sam grumbled.

'Even so, she not once asked about him.' Nate creased his eyebrows. 'Daniel is adamant not to see her. I don't know if May Ellis is even aware of it, but she's involved too. Maybe not directly, but she could still have answers we're looking for.' He said surely and walked towards the interrogation room.

'Well, if anyone can find out more - it's Nate.' Callen sighed. 'I guess all we can do now is wait.'

'Great.' Sam complained, dropping into a seat beside Nigel. 'More waiting.'

~ LB ~

The images of trees and traffic flickered across the surface of the glass Daniel stared through. He sat in the back seat of the SUV, his head tilted away from his protectors in the front seat, and was yet to make a sound since they'd left the safe cover house moments earlier.

He knew May Ellis was in Los Angeles. He knew she hadn't told NCIS what they needed to know, or else things would already be very different. And Daniel also knew his quiet contemplation as an outsider wasn't going to last. Soon they would ask him, and there was only so much he couldn't say.

Nate had been right to assume it, because Daniel indeed wanted his story to be told.

'We're here.' Kensi announced, bringing the car to a halt.

Daniel sighed and waited for Deeks to open the door from the outside, before he slipped from his seat. Landing on solid ground, Daniel looked at Deeks and wondered what was going on. He could feel a cool breeze on his face, as the boy stared trustingly upwards at Deeks and awaited instructions or explanations.

Deeks didn't speak either.

He reached his hand towards Daniel, slowly and intentionally - willing to wait as long as he had to. Daniel frowned with unsureness, then lowered his blue gaze to Deeks' larger hand. Without previous hesitation, he clasped Deeks' hand with his own and allowed the Detective to lead him around the car. Kensi followed the pair, yet respectfully kept some distance.

'Take a deep breath.' Deeks encouraged quietly, watching as Daniel obeyed. 'Remember the feeling. Now see.' He turned one final step around the SUV, exposing Daniel to the sight that spread out far before them.

Daniel gasped and his hand slipped from Deeks. He could his first true glimpse of what he'd always hoped to witness. They stood on an empty road, near a space of sand and the occasional dock. Ahead was something Deeks was more familiar with than anything else, and to which Kensi felt soothed by.

The sea is vast and untameable, but at a glance it may appear calm and enduring. To the eight-year-old boy who had always dreamed of seeing the stretching blue water reaching to the horizon, it was quite simply the sight of freedom.

It held none of the answers he had wanted, yet Daniel was not disappointed.

It was not a bright and sunny scene as he had expected, given the later hour of the day. Daniel gradually stepped away from the road and tugged Deeks across the sand. When they were mere feet from the shoreline, the boy halted with fear.

'It's okay.' Deeks said and placed a hand on the child's shoulder. 'It'll still be here, when you're ready.'

Daniel exhaled and retreated from the water.

With a safe distance between himself and the shore, the boy could absorb the sound of the crushing waves and gentle breeze colliding against each other. He felt calm and, for the first time in a long time, in control. Daniel even cracked a smile when Deeks turned his attention to Kensi, trying to splash water at her with his feet. She squealed in surprise and disgruntled shock, then tried to flee because she knew retaliation would only provoke a water war. Deeks laughed and continued annoying her, despite the grin spreading across her face as well.

Daniel remained standing on a slope of sand, watching his two protectors playing near the water's edge in which he feared. They were fine, unharmed and accepting, but could he take the same leap? It had been a week, and yet it felt longer. So much had happened, and so much had changed. Watching Kensi and Deeks, Daniel began to understand something he hadn't before.

'There were moments.' Daniel whispered to himself, clutching his camera to his chest as he recalled and repeated what Deeks had said not too long ago. 'Days, even, when we could almost believe he'd changed and things weren't going to get bad again. That maybe this time it will be okay, and we'd be a family.' The child felt tears prickling his eyes and ducked his head in dismissal of the joy and serenity around him.

The ocean was as freeing as he had hoped, and as inspiring as he had dreamed of, yet its foreboding and never-ending presence scared the boy. The capabilities and realisations were not something he felt able to deal with. Lowering his gaze slowly, he flipped open his camera to view the little screen attached to it. He picked the most recent footage from before the fateful day of meeting Kensi and Deeks.

_'Are you sure?' Jasmine Ellis asked her husband as they stood in their lush, appropriately portioned backyard. _

_'They won't give up.' Michael said firmly. 'One way or another...' He paused and turned to look at the camera, annoyed but primarily exasperated by the sight._

_'Turn that off!' Jasmine snapped as she hastily approached it, roughly pulling the camera from the child's hand. She accidentally left it switched on, even as it was dropped onto the nearby garden table, and Daniel was pulled into sight. _

_'Are you going to leave me?' Daniel asked, rushing forward. He was scared and upset as he clung to her, wrapping his arms around her middle._

_'You knew one day this would happen.' Jasmine pushed him away and left the view of the camera. 'We can't outrun them forever.'_

_'No.' Daniel sniffed, sinking onto the brightly green grass of the yard. 'Please don't go!'_

_'You'll be okay.' Michael placed a hand on his shoulder. 'NCIS will look after you.'_

_'Will you come back for me?' Daniel wanted to know. _

_'Turn off the camera.' Michael instructed and reached to switch it off._

Daniel stood on the cooling beach, with sand between his toes, and bit his lip as the sight of the ended footage. A blank screen gleamed back at him, reflective of his own lack of answers and assurance.

'Other times it was just easier to pretend.' He whispered the final line Deeks had said the previous night, prior to Kensi's interruption.

'Hey, Daniel!' Deeks called to him from the shore, his drenched hair having no impact on his wide smile. 'Come here, buddy.'

Daniel closed his camera and considered the smiling, inviting faces of his protectors shining over at him. Something about them seemed different, though the boy couldn't work out what it was. He peered at the slapping water reaching the shore and hesitated, then exhaled and wandered over.

'What is it?' Daniel wanted to know.

'A ship.' Deeks told him and reached both hands towards the boy, awaiting permission.

'Here.' Daniel passed his precious camera to Kensi. 'I want to remember this forever.'

'Okay.' Kensi nodded and raised it, preparing to press the record button.

'That's my boy.' Deeks chuckled when Daniel jumped bravely towards him.

He seized the child under his arms and hoisted the eight-year-old onto his shoulders, while Kensi recorded the entire moment. Daniel was unsteady at first, then felt dangerously far from the ground as he clutched to Deeks' hair. A calmness soon fell over him, when he looked far and beyond to the blue water of the ocean-filled horizon.

'I don't see it.' Daniel frowned. 'Where?'

'Look closer.' Deeks pointed, placing a hand on Daniel's knee for insurance. 'It's there, you just have to know where to look.'

Daniel squinted his eyes and searched along the water's edge, until a darkened shape became clear. His previous thoughts were washed away, including his momentary wish that Monty was there to share the event with them, when he saw the sight he'd been seeking.

'I see it!' Daniel exclaimed, unknowingly releasing his hold on Deeks as he pointed it out to Kensi. 'Look.'

'I see it too.' Kensi smiled at the boy, who was in the most joyous state they'd seen him in all week.

'Let's get a better look.' Deeks said, skilfully dropping Daniel back onto his feet.

He bent to roll up the hems of both their jeans, and clasped the boy's hand to lead him along the shoreline, closer to the water each time. When they reached a pile of rocks, Deeks took notice of the pending water and moved away.

'I'm not afraid this time.' Daniel told him with a proud smile.

Kensi halted as she watched the scene in front of her.

The grin on her face faded slightly when she realised the things that had been swirling in her mind were much less confusing in hindsight. Their professional portrayal of one had left her wondering what it really meant to have a family. Now she knew. A Kensi watched Deeks and Daniel walk side-by-side along the waterline without fear or uncomfortable hesitation; Kensi knew. Family wasn't about blood, it was about feelings.

She was glad Daniel felt safer and happier, and yet her eyes primarily fell to Deeks. Her partner and friend, who was in more ways than one...her family.

As Kensi watched on while the sun sank lower in the shy, colouring the watery surface with colourful shades, she could not tear her eyes from the lovely image in front of her. It wasn't the sunset or sea that had captured her attention, but rather the man who had captured her heart. And deep down, as Kensi watched the eight-year-old boy laughing through his wonderfully rare smile, she wondered if some bonds were formed faster than others or if certain truths were safer to ignore until they could no longer be denied.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Whew, what a long chapter! I'm exhausted, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please take a moment to send a review - what do you think of Special Agent Nigel Sanny? Who is the mysterious Ian? What are your thoughts about May Ellis? Will Nate, Nell, or Eric uncover information that could help their case? Do you like/dislike that Julia will be a part of this story? Any theories or questions? And so on - please share your thoughts and offer feedback as it's not only helpful but makes my day.

Thanks again for reading! Next chapter is has been pre-planned out, that's how important it is. It will contain more of Julia, more case development, and Nate will finally get to meet Daniel!


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